Ozymandias Replies

October 30, 2022 - Reading time: ~1 minute

So, friend, you think my face and legs in stone
Are signs that I have failed? Friend, think again.
When I ascended to my marble throne
The land was forest, meadow, lakeside glen.
I took it and I wasted it. This desert tract
Stands as my most expansive monument:
Dead-life, as blank as hope, as bald as fact.
I made a world of sand. And it's this spent
Stage-set, bleached clean, that I am proudest of—
More than my palaces and bling and war—
Because it's the perfection of my love
When my rule's push came to my people's shove.
We tyrants know what power's really for.
I made my desolation to endure.

—Adam Roberts

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Sheikh Zayed Mosque, Abu Dhabi

March 3, 2012 - Reading time: ~1 minute

Sheikh Zayed Mosque, Abu Dhabi.
Photograph by Rashed Al Za’abi (via Flickr).

Al-Khazneh, Petra

January 14, 2012 - Reading time: ~1 minute

Al-Khazneh (The Treasury), Petra.
Photograph by Jorge Tutor.

July 19, 2011 - Reading time: ~1 minute

Hotel Atlantis, Dubai.
via Tumblr (source unattributed).

Water in the window

July 17, 2011 - Reading time: ~1 minute

The traditional [Middle-Eastern] way of storing water is in the clay pot hanging in the window.

Photograph by "KMS".
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Qamariya

July 17, 2011 - Reading time: ~1 minute

So it’s no surprise that I’m captivated by … the colorful stain glass half-circle-shaped windows in most homes here. It’s an odd home that doesn’t have at least one. They scatter multi-colored sunlight into the homes during the day, then reflect homelight out onto the streets at night, making the houses appear bejeweled.

Some say this is after the word for “moon”.

Then I wonder … Do I let the sunlight into my heart into my heart by day and share the light within by night? Is there beauty in my life, inside and out?

Photograph by "KMS".
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