{"id":249429,"date":"2026-10-17T20:39:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T15:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=249429"},"modified":"2026-10-17T20:39:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T15:09:55","slug":"the-raw-musings-of-a-poet-i-wear-my-watches-stopped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-raw-musings-of-a-poet-i-wear-my-watches-stopped\/","title":{"rendered":"The Raw Musings Of A Poet: I Wear My Watches Stopped"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gayanga Dissanayaka<\/a> –<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Gayanga Dissanayaka<\/p><\/div>\n

Words \u2013 especially in printed form \u2013 have been a huge part of Marianne David\u2019s life for as long as she can remember. She grew up in a house filled with books where she and her siblings were constantly encouraged to read. They did not have a television for the longest time and by the time they did, they didn\u2019t care much for it. Just about every weekend would feature visits to Chinthaka Bookshop in Mount Lavinia, Vijitha Yapa Bookshop, and the Dean\u2019s Road second-hand bookshops. They\u2019d also go to KVG\u2019s, the British Council, and Bibliomania occasionally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always turned to books throughout every part of my life and have to constantly restrain myself from buying as many as I would like to!\u201d said Marianne. \u201cI am deeply happy that I was able to instill the same intense love of reading in my daughter, having started reading to her when she was just a few days old. I don\u2019t know what my life would have been like if not for books.\u201d\"\"<\/p>\n

Marianne recalls her childhood as difficult, painful and extremely challenging. \u201cBut two things were always around: my brother and books. Those early years have certainly shaped who I am, how I live, how I love, and how I write.\u201d Today she is also a published author, with her poetry collection, I Wear My Watches Stopped<\/i> published through The Jam Fruit Tree Publications.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been writing for what seems like forever, starting with poetry \u2013 mostly bad love poems \u2013 and then as a journalist since 2001, when I joined The Sunday Leader<\/i> newspaper, at which point I was able to start telling stories that really mattered and made a difference in people\u2019s lives,\u201d she said. More than 25 years since she first stepped into an editorial, writing continues to play a huge role in her life and her career. She was a full-time journalist until two years ago. In late 2024, she stepped into the corporate world as a communications and content professional, while continuing with journalism on a freelance basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I will be writing for as long as I am alive and able,\u201d said Marianne. \u201cWhen I was a child, long before computers arrived in my life, I would pray that God would keep my hands safe so that I would always be able to write. It\u2019s the only thing I\u2019ve ever wanted to do. Books \u2013 both novels and poetry \u2013 helped me survive my childhood and most of my life; they took me away into another world and never left me. You\u2019re never really alone if you have a book,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

This book comprises a collection of poems written by Marianne over the course of several years, until 2020. At that point she had around a thousand poems posted on her blog and thought she should submit a manuscript for The Gratiaen. Then it was a matter of sitting down and selecting the poems for the manuscript. It was initially named \u2018All of the Oranges\u2019 and was longlisted for The Gratiaen Prize in 2021.<\/p>\n

Marianne explained how she has no real writing process. She simply writes what she thinks, mostly inspired by real life experiences and feelings. She noted that she rarely revisits or edits something she writes, choosing to just leave it as it is. Her writing style with the raw truth is what works for her.<\/p>\n

I Wear My Watches Stopped<\/i> consists of poetry across themes such as love, loss, grief, memory, desire, and hope. The collection also explores racism, state terrorism, death and regret. \u201cThe most challenging periods happened in relation to most of the poems. And I was always just writing for myself \u2013 record-keeping, of sorts, lest I forget,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no real comfort on my pages. Recognition, yes; some readers will find it in some poems. Hopefully a better understanding of grief and more difficult \u2013 and rarely openly discussed \u2013 things like abandonment, vulnerability, and anger. And how brief this life is, in the end; how much we love and how much we can lose,\u201d explained the poet.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the publishing process, Marianne said: \u201cThe whole process of publishing took just one month. From the moment I decided to publish to the point I held the book in my hands.\u201d Marianne recalled that she will always remember and hold precious how much her daughter and closest friends encouraged her.<\/p>\n

Marianne hopes her poems speak to the readers in some way and that sharing her experiences reflects something of theirs. \u201cNone of us are ever really alone in how we feel. And holding a book in our hands, we can never really be alone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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