Dying, I lose all sense of time,
being one with the universe
until my eyes open in suffering.
The pain recedes, leaving me young again,
but not as young as I become
when as a child I play,
finding innocence by degrees
on my journey to the womb.
Before that there is love
gaining on me all the time.
Geoffrey Heptonstall
Geoffrey Heptonstall’s fifth collection of poetry, What We Do Well, is soon to be published by Cyberwit. 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, broadcast and/or published. He is also a prolific short fiction writer, essayist and reviewer. He lives in Cambridge, England.