I have a photograph
of the canal in Bath
by the door leading out
of my living room,
taken the day after my husband died.
A house reflected in the canal.
The real house windows are dark…
no lights on…
but the reflection
has windows blazing with light
from the setting sun.
It reminds me
My husband’s earthly life
Was ended, and dark,
But he still lives
in the light of the mansion
in the Otherworld.
I went often to the canal after that.
I did not see the sign again –
the combination of a dark house
and blazing windows in the reflection.
It was a “one-off” symbol
given to me
to teach me
and to comfort me.
I love my friend Anthea’s paintings.
Three pictures,
illustrations of my two books
Myths of the Sacred Tree
and Crystal Legends.
I went to Santorini
with her in 1990.
I climbed a volcano with her,
and watched the sunset
over the Aegean Sea ,
and walked through
an ancient Minoan town,
and brooded on whether
Thera’s volcano erupting
made an end of the Minoan culture
in Crete .
This week the Icelandic volcano
erupting
has disrupted air travel in Europe .
Both my sons,
Julian in Indonesia ,
Strat in America ,
can’t get back to their homes
in England .
Not since Icarus fell from the sky
has man been in so much trouble
flying.
Was it the volcanic ash cloud from Santorini
made Icarus fall,
or coming too near the Sun
in pride?
And would the Icelandic volcano
make an end of our civilisation,
based on flying
and money,
as the Santorini volcano did the Minoans
in Crete?
