Leaving a Shadow

Although there are no direct allusions to it in her poems, Heather Allen has clearly learned from the classical Chinese tradition how to listen to the world around her and how to allow it to speak through her, through observations of light and shadow and the turning seasons. As with her longtime practice of Tai Chi and her study of traditional Chinese medicine, her poetic practice leaves no room for self-indulgence, but rather seems to arise as naturally as leaf to branch. Hers is the temporal world of constant flux, but a world illuminated by a light that lies beyond, mysterious, essential, and alive.