"Centuries of stone are speaking"

Marlowe and the School of Night
by Geoffrey Heptonstall

Centuries of stone are speaking.
The staircase spiral is the secret self
going down to the haunt of banishment.
There is a chamber in the heart
where wisdom compels caution.
A hint of this is in the play of love
whose loss is the poet’s gain.
The cryptic words are softly spoken,
for knowing can never be unknown,
and restive minds are ever curious
to learn what is not foretold.
The answer hesitates unwritten
until the words open the door
to polite elevations
of elaborate enquiry.
The ask is for deliverance.
Bones are no more dust than stone.
They move among the living.
Truth may be in acts of mystery.
The allusion reveals the real
in starless shades of night.
All is said in speculation.
A tavern’s invidia gives an answer.



 

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