An Evocation of the T’Ang Dynasty
The leaves have fallen early this year.
Butterflies are pale and move slowly now.
The reeds reflect the water,
a blue shade neither sea nor sky.
The wind from the east brings rain
in clouds covering the whole earth.
At the water’s edge the willows lament
the passing of the seasons
from heat to frost to snow,
a change like a lady’s moods.
Her eyes are the phases of the moon,
her tears the petals of spring blossom,
her smile the grace of the mountain hare.
Where she walks the river flows freely.
The waters will rise in a flood
spilling onto the street beneath her window.
Her silken innocence flows on the high tide
as far as the bridge into heaven.
Geoffrey Heptonstall has worked as a bookseller , managing the Art section of Borders in Cambridge, England. Before that he took charge of French manuscripts for an independent academic publisher in Cambridge. His fourth collection of poetry, A Whispering, was published by Cyberwit June 2023. His first collection, The Rites of Paradise, received critical acclaim when first published in 2020. Sappho’s Moon and The Wicken Bird followed. A novel, Heaven’s Invention, was published by Black Wolf in 2016. The Queen of Alsatia, a novella, was published in Pennsylvania Literary Journal in 2023. A number of plays and monologues have been staged and/or published. He is also a prolific short fiction writer, essayist and reviewer.