Tonight's challenge is from Poets & Writers 2009 poetry writing challenge. Last year on April 25 writers were to write a letter to a landscape or scene you pass through today. For example, “Dear Williamsburg Bridge..."
Dear Ellora Caves, Maharashtra
Danna
I have never been inside your basalt womb
never felt the Indian earth beneath my feet
I have only seen you in photographs
in which you are described as being near the old
caravan route linking northern cities
to ports on the west coast.
I have read that you are cut
from the Charanandri hills and are very old,
dating back to 600 A.D.
There are thirty-four of you,carved from the earth
for Jain, Hindu, or Buddhist observance.
Such a large family!
You must be proud of Ellora Cave 16,
the world's largest monolith
and axis between heaven and earth.
Neither the Greeks, Romans,
nor Egyptians can claim this honor.
So strong are you, that not even thirteenth
century muslims could damage you,
and they tried.
It is a delight to imagine that the caves,
Shiva and Parvati's Himilayan home
was coated with white
lime to resemble snow.
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