Taj Mahal (Poetry)
19th May 2013
Love expressed in marble — such a cold extravagance —
only a Mogul emperor could conceive
grief on so sublime a scale, his sorrow set with precious stones
and carved, as though construction might achieve
some respite gleaned from beauty and purity of form
when reflecting the dead whiteness of the moon,
its purpose clear, implicit, echoed in each faultless line:
his final gift the world’s most perfect tomb.
A building born in anguish, his lasting passion burns
when eastern moonlight throws itself across
a Persian dome whose symmetry can resurrect the past
and so describes the hollow ache of loss.
only a Mogul emperor could conceive
grief on so sublime a scale, his sorrow set with precious stones
and carved, as though construction might achieve
some respite gleaned from beauty and purity of form
when reflecting the dead whiteness of the moon,
its purpose clear, implicit, echoed in each faultless line:
his final gift the world’s most perfect tomb.
A building born in anguish, his lasting passion burns
when eastern moonlight throws itself across
a Persian dome whose symmetry can resurrect the past
and so describes the hollow ache of loss.