Half-light - Dwelling Spaces

Wednesday, 20 April 2016

Half-light

The misty mornings of late have been stirring the poet in me. As a young girl I was inspired by my English teacher and she encouraged me to read Yeats among other things and even after 30+ years it's fascinating how lines pop back into my head. This morning the mist had me reciting 'of night and light and the half-light' from his poem 'He wishes for the cloths of heaven'.  

That phrase 'half-light' got me thinking about my life at the moment. Being in transition between one place and another is a strange time somehow. I know that Bristol and college life is coming to an end, and growing on the horizon is my new home and life as a curate. Neither have yet gone or arrived and yet the presence of both feels very real. And in this place of half-light there are dreams. Dreams about ending well and dreams about what the future holds. And it is a place where you feel a little more vulnerable. So tread softly.


And here is the poem in full:

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
WB Yeats

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