the only Light

Been re-reading sections of Nan Shepherd's biography, which I first got hold of, back in October 2017 - it really is an impressive volume ...

... and thus; here is one of Shepherd's poems, taken from within, which helps draw Chapter 5 of the pictured [2017] biography to a close:


Lux Perpetua
Nobis cum semel occidis brevis lux ...

A sweep of sky went round and round the place;
The land ran sloping away to the left and right
And the hills looked low across that width of space,
The sea, blue-white.

O clarity, colour, the height of a winter noon,
The flocking of stormy gulls in the stormy sky,
The flocking of winds together, the flight, the croon
Of their passing by.

And a hush behind them that lay on the wood like a spell,
A hush that was quick with the underthrob of sound.
After, to south-south-west through the asphodel
The sun slid round.

Last, the dark; and out of the jewel-blue east
Sudden the first full star, the oft-approved,
That with the tranquil motion of a priest,
Somewhat removed.

Above the restless turmoil earth must know,
Gazing through clear aerial lucency,
Looks on the face of light, until the glow
Perceptibly

Shines from his own devoted countenance;
So mediates the evening star, so keeps
The sun, and prophesies the lights that glance
Through vaster deeps.

And we returning take the star of eve,
We mortal and our sun how soon gone down,
For proclamation and thereby believe
The wild renown

Of life whose long potentialities
Quicken, like flame from perishing star to star
Through unimagined primal silences
And vaults afar.

New revelations of the only Light,
Illuminating awhile again returning
Within the unbroken splendour infinite,
The always burning.

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Nan Shepherd (1893-1981)

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