The Poetry Kit |
| Srinjay Chakravarti | |||
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ON THE SANDS OF TIME Time is trapped, the fleeting moment immortalized in the trickle in the waists of hourglass figures through which the sands run out. Reifying semblance into substance, imitation of marble or metal -- golden statues concretising passion into siliceous images of fugacity. Twelve great wheels, each twelve feet in diameter rolling through the pathway of hours, days, months. The stone chariot of the 13th century Sun Temple, worshipped by Hindus: symbolising that life is lived in endlessly recurring cycles. Marmoreal illusion in sand, the architecture of evanescence at the Puri beach in eastern India, where princesses, nymphs, courtesans erotic icons of Konark's temples doe-eyed, heavy-breasted, bejewelled, are clothed in sheer diaphanous garments of wind, sculpted in the gestural mime of beauty. Timeless art. Whorls of sand, striae of sand, swirls of dust, the trickle of time -- handfuls of ephemeral grains under the tropical sun's searing vigil. And the Bay of Bengal leaches away the sculptures, water sponging away the fragility of human endeavour. A few hours, or a few aeons -- In the end, all is sand and water. |
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