don’t drag me down to your controversy
lift your eyes toward the sky within you
from here, stand by me and sense your dream
your paradise, your most exalted soul
what’s beauty if it won’t even take you there
do you see the evening light on the ripples?
there, before you beyond the fastidiously
carved quiet balustrade of noontime sun white
i know, its brightness is somewhat dimmed, tinged
with ochre and time, and conversations
with the river and the wind and the surge
in the air: now love, now hate, now betrayal
now treachery, now suspicion, now maligning
drifting about all around, to adore, to deplore
what is beauty if it won’t even invoke that
let your eyes roam over me here, or here,
there were skilled hands, there was unstillable
passion, precision, eyes unblinking, watching for
every sign of perfection, for they’d detected that in
a love mostly imperfect, blameless those eyes and hands
listen, if you still can, if the noise without hasn’t
bludgeoned, hasn’t stolen all that’s yours,
your astonishing pulchritude, your very breath
gasping as you sever ties with your own immanent self
what is beauty if no one wanted it destroyed
three hundred years and a little over seven decades only
not that long if you think about it, that this transcendent
marble has made wonder a destination, children stand
at the gateway clutching parents’ hands, lovers inch closer
you walk down the fine gardens and terraces toward me
i am not mughal, not hindu, jain or christian
no marauder nor ruler, no applicant of power am i
i am the hope of an emperor, i am the fantasy of the visitor
i am the breath of an artisan creating immortality
with his bare hands, i am the name that you take
as if you own me, you, and no one else
you and i, bound to each other by promises whispered
by time, long before either you or i were here
neither tyrant nor tyranny can fathom that
leave them to their games, those controversies
look, the fingernail moon is up
come, stand by me and sense your dream
your paradise, your most exalted soul
what is beauty if it won’t even take you there
never thought the taj would get embroiled in the dirt and mudslinging of politics. right now it is. every day, some ridiculous assertion or claim. today, i think i just lost it. all i could do was write, in the end.
if you’d like to share your taj memories, thoughts, mutterings, please post below. here’s another taj poem and a quick snapshot
Seriously what’s wrong with these people..can’t they get any other to play with their political mind..that’s ridiculous..i’m afraid of this manner of mixing religion with everything..
yeah, people are losing it. though after i’ve felt all my anger and ire, i think, maybe in the end it will all lead to something better. india is much stronger and more resilient than we know perhaps. it surely is. in the meanwhile the foolishness around this beautiful piece of work continues.