In the age of T'Ang

From China's far past

Lived Li Po

A poet

Impetuous rebel of scholarly form

Pulsing with positive Nature

 

As legend has it

So many years related

Sodden with drink

Or sex

Or both

Li Po leaned from his lazy boat

To embrace the shining moon

Reflected in the Yangste River

And tumbled into the water

And drowned.

 

Perhaps he couldn't swim

Or wouldn't

Arrested in delirium.

In the spreading pool of broken light

Did he drink deeply of Death

Or Life?

 

I wonder. 

 

 

 

Cynthia Buell Thomas

August, 2015