Trees heavy with birds hold
the afternoon up with their hands.
Arches and patios. A tank of water,
poison green between red walls.
A corridor leads to the sanctuary:
beggars, flowers, leprosy, marble.
Tombs, two names, their stories:
Nizam Uddin, the wondering theologian,
Amir Khusru, the parrot's tongue.
The saint and the poet. A grim
star sprouts from a cupola.
Slim sparkles in the pool.
Amir Khusru, parrot or mocking bird
the two haves of each moment,
muddy sorrow, voice light.
Syllables, wondering fires,
Vagabond architectures:
every poem is time, and burns.
"Sometime ago, to celebrate the centenary year of the poet, Nobel Laureate, and once Ambassador of Mexico to India, Octavio Paz, the Cervantes Institute asked me to respond photographically to poems of his. The poem chosen for me was “THE TOMB OF AMIR KHUSRO”. "
"My reaction to the poem is much less to Octavio Paz than it is to Amir Khusro and Nizamuddin Aulia, and the glimpses of a beautiful relationship that we see through his writings. It is actually a thin thread of thought from my childhood that I followed here."
