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    Current Issue After Religion cover
    ceramic horse from the Tang Dynasty, China
    Plough Quarterly 47: After Religion Poetry

    A Tang Dynasty Ceramic Horse

    By Benjamin P. Myers

    March 17, 2026
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    It stands on all four hooves, just stopped
    as if before a cliffside topped
    with waving grasses like its mane.
    Ten thousand horses made the plain
    resound in one bass voice, as long
    as Empress Wu controlled the Tang.
    But now in cubed museum glass
    just one horse flats the waving grass.
    With all that muscle, flesh, and hair
    long moldered in the earth’s thick care,
    this one unbroken horse stands posed,
    its eyelids heavy, almost closed.

     

    ceramic horse from the Tang Dynasty, China

    Image copyright © Eskenazi Ltd. Used by permission.

    Contributed By BenjaminMyers Benjamin P. Myers

    Benjamin Myers is the author of four volumes of poetry, including his most recent book, The Family Book of Martyrs (Lamar University Press, 2022).

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