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 has made a number of contributions to LPB . 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, broadcast and/or published. He is also a prolific short fiction writer, essayist and reviewer. He lives in Cambridge.