She is a one of the foremost Sri Lankan poets. Vivimarie’s book Nothing Prepares You won the 2007 Gratiaen Prize. She was also awarded the 2009 SAARC Poetry Award in Delhi. She is of Belgian and Sinhala ancestry and grew up in Kurunegala. She holds a PhD from the University of Ulster, UK, and is currently a senior Lecturer in English Language, Literature and Linguistics at the Open University of Sri Lanka. Her work has been translated into Sinhalese, Spanish, and Swedish, and published in India, Bangladesh, Mexico, Sweden, and the UK, as well as in online journals such as sugar mule and the open access journal ‘postcolonial text.
 Vivimarie Vanderpoorten |
There’s A Woman
In every picture
there’s a woman
an outstretched hand
holding out scissors
carrying a garland
handing out a tool, a ribbon,
a tray of certificates, awards
leaning against a car
a tyre, a bottle of soda
she’s serving a drink
pouring coffee
smiling nodding
watching
but hardly waiting.
She’s sitting it out
observing it happen
taking down
the dictation of life
Even
typing out decisions of life and death
Sentences.
In every picture there’s a woman.
If you look very hard
You might even see her.