Banished My Blindness

"Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new
...
You called, shouted, broke through my darkness;
You flared, blazed, banished my blindness;
You lavished your fragrance, I gasped, and now I pant for you;
I tasted you, and I hunger and thirst;
You touched me, and I burned for your peace."

- Augustine, trans. Maria Boulding

Another challenging poem - as the commentary says, "Spirituality is popular in contemporary culture, but it has a certain voluntariness and soft focus that earlier Christian writers would have had difficulty in recognizing as the same impulse as the all-consuming desire that drove them"

We had a surprise visit from an old young friend from Southampton today - Sam Marchant. It was warm enough to sit outside by the chiminea so I took this shot of the blazing fire for the poem.