Guest Poem by Tim Dwyer

Tim Dwyer’s poems appear regularly in UK and Irish publications, recently in Cyphers, Masculinity Anthology (Broken Sleep), New Irish Writing, Under The Radar. His chapbook is ‘Smithy Of Our Longings’ (Lapwing). Originally from Brooklyn, NY, he lives in Bangor, Northern Ireland.     Chang Chi-Ho was an 8th century Tang poet. Banished from high office who remained a hermit until shortly before his death. This is inspired by his poem ‘A World Apart’. This poem is from Acumen 108.

After Chang Chi-Ho

These twenty years of banishment
became a gift. Though it is said
I fled from the world, here I found it –

my beloved, the moon,
my friend, the sea,
my shelter, the sky.

I wake to the welcome
of dawn’s open door
and the gull’s spirit call.

I didn’t flee the world,
the world found me.

Chang Chi-Ho, dead for years.
I’m the grey-haired fisherman
of water and mist, who

casts the line empty of bait
into the constant river,
fish swimming free, until

I will join the dust.