The.Other.Side….

Investigating an Poetic Author

Michael Ondaatje

            I was looking through the set of books on the table till the hard cover book:

“The Cinnamon Peeler” by Michael Ondaatje caught my eye. It was actually the name Michael Ondaatje. I had read his book “In The Skin Of A Lion” in my English class and didn’t know the author also wrote poetry. So I found that very interesting and decided to read his poetry as well and find out more about him.

            I found it quiet shocking when I searched Michael Ondaatje’s   profile, to find that Michael Ondaatje was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He then moved to England with his mother in 1954 and then to Canada in 1962, becoming a Canadian citizen. 

            Although he is best known as a novelist. Ondaatje has also worked on autobiographies, poetry and film. A semi-fictional memoir of his childhood in Sri Lanka is called Running In The Family (1982).

            If I ever got a chance to meet Michael Ondaatje in person there are three questions I would love to ask him:

1.      What was his inspiration for the two books:

a.       In The Skin Of A Lion

b.      The Cinnamon Peeler

2.      What is it that draws him to English literature?

3.      What three words would he describe his poetry and English literature in?

4.      What his favorite English word is?

A BUNCH OF POLLYWOOPUS!

At first, love starts off by giving the HEEBIE-JEEBIES.

… Fake promises & commitments

… true feelings & emotions

… and a bunch of POLLYWOOPUS!

Soon enough …

Love begins to feels like the falling wood of a house on fire.

And none can dim the fires fierce and special glow

Or change its destiny.

They say true love speaks in tender tones

And hears with gentle ears.

I say, love speaks with DEVASTATING HORRIFIC tones

And listens with BLASTING ear drums.

Like entwining the heart of an APHRODITE

In long THORN stems,

But none could be blamed other than the heart of

A condemned CASANOVA

In which, no shame or pity casts over INAMORATA.

The best and most beautiful thing in the world cannot be seen nor touched.

They must be felt with the heart.

Love no longer becomes the HEEBIE-JEEBIES in your stomach,

Nor the HUSTLE and BUSTLE in your heart

..love..

            ….just a bunch of

                                    …POLLYWOPPUS!