Sunday, September 25, 2016

Margaret Cooter

I was so pleased to meet with Margaret Cooter while in England recently. We first met a few years ago, introduced by a mutual friend, Hilary Gooding, when we three spent a morning exploring the atmospheric grounds of Highgate Cemetery in North London. I have been following her blog ever since.

Margaret's eclectic interests are reflected in her wide range of postings. She posts about workshops she is taking in drawing and printmaking, and about the adventures of her regular sketching group. She posts about her bookmaking projects and her explorations of dipping stitched fabric into porcelain slip. Often she will post interesting photos taken while walking around London, or on her visits to London exhibitions, and sometimes she will just post a wonderful poem.



Perhaps you will find this poem, which she featured on her blog last month, as remarkable as I did.

The Bright Field

I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the
pearl of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.


- R S Thomas (1913-2000)


2 comments:

Margaret said...

Thank you, Heather; that poem was the tonic -- and the reminder -- I needed this morning!

Heather Dubreuil said...

For me, the poem is about allowing space in one's life to experience the sublime, about being "in the moment".