Almond Blossom Town (Words And Music By Dr Ian Inkster, June 2017) Poem by Dr Ian Inkster

Almond Blossom Town (2017)

This poem and song is set in Tang China at the time of Ching Ming Day, or the day of tomb-sweeping when ancestors are looked after and reflected upon, a tradition still kept in most Chinese-culture areas, usually in the first week of April.

Here we have a village setting in the Tang period (in the Western calendar and notation, AD 618-907) with images of stone bridge, quiet, almond blossoms, lotus flowers and the white lilies, paddy fields all around. These are the ingredients of the Chinese romantic and poetic imagination, but also the signifiers of Chinese civilisation and status as an Empire.

The almond blossom is generally an early spring flower, and in China captures the nature of female fortitude tempered in delicacy. Where plum and cherry blossoms in China are at times linked to ancient goddesses, to femininity, sexuality and good grace, the almond blossom adds a touch of the stern to the female image. The female is not merely an adornment to the power of China.

The temple is buddhist, the moral economy of the village is Confucian. The gender of the subject must I guess be female, the lover gone, the boat that both depended on adrift as the moon riseson Almond Blossom Town.

Ian Inkster