Koh-I-Babu <br />Grandfather Mountain <br /> <br />casts its gentle shadow <br />over everything. <br /> <br />Both man and stone <br />his children. <br /> <br />The Buddhas of Bamiyan <br />guard the valley <br /> <br />as they have done <br />for 14 centuries <br /> <br />gazing <br />through time <br /> <br />beyond <br /> <br />into eternity. <br /> <br />But nothing <br />lasts for ever <br /> <br />not even <br />eternity. <br /> <br />I laugh to find <br />there is a relic <br /> <br />of the finger <br />of the Buddha <br /> <br />hastily scraped out of <br />his funeral pyre <br /> <br />this human need <br />to hold all that is <br /> <br />passing. <br /> <br />This of all faiths <br />pointing out <br />the impermanence of things <br /> <br />clinging to <br />the Buddha’s finger. <br /> <br />Now the kohl-eyed <br />Taliban <br /> <br />reduce the giant guardians <br />to nothing <br /> <br />giving the world’s press <br />a front seat <br /> <br />as eternity <br />is destroyed. <br /> <br />The statues <br />coming alive <br />in their very death <br /> <br />burning into <br />men’s minds <br /> <br />living for ever <br />in their destruction. <br /> <br />Now the Buddha’s burning finger <br />points out <br /> <br />that nothing <br /> <br />lasts forever.<br /><br />Dónall Dempsey<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-buddhas-of-bamiyan/
