A Path Through . . .

(Found here ) Light refracting on the reach of the river; gulls and sails embracing the slight wind; jellyfish clasping the calm water or bunting the sand in the basking shallows; posts of wood barnacled and rotten; small waves lisping upon the shore: here is an opulence I had forgotten. And here and there, a scatter of children scamper across the lawn like leaves driven before the tempest of their happiness. Parents and grandparents are at ease in the shade of trees and in each other’s company. For these people, things I thought we had lost have never been open to doubt. As the sun departs, parties arrive for prawning: light their lanterns and lay out their nets. The world again seems young and lovely, values certain and strong: young men and old men, friends, fathers and sons in pairs dissolve into the dark water and toil together in the hope of harvest. How ignorant I have been through these last years of learning, how weighted down on one side of the scale. The large, deep things a...