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A.D.'s avatar

Stunning. Googled the book and ordered it. Seems like a slightly more modern Walden.

On the subject of night, there's a book called Acquainted with the Night by Christopher Dewdney all about the dark hours. I think you'd dig it.

Thanks for giving me something to meditate on while snot and suffering pours out of my face - tested positive for covid last night. Wish I had those dunes and that sea to gaze upon...

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Poetic Outlaws's avatar

Get well, my friend!

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Maha's avatar

Speedy recovery.

I too loved this prose and was happy to get your recommendation as well.

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Patris's avatar

Strength! - and soup.

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Jo Sundberg's avatar

Beautiful. A few days ago, when I woke at 4am, I walked outside barefoot, to look at the stars. I do this every day. I stood in awe for some minutes looking at Orion's Belt and the Milky Way.

And then Starlink passed by. Slowly it moved across "my" sky. It felt frightening and un human. It felt like a take over, a pillaging. I walked back inside, head down, feeling rather empty and discombobulated. The next early morning my sky was filled only with nature's own miracle. While "he" travelled across someone else's starry sky. It may have been yours. 🌠

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Shannon McCloud Johnson's avatar

I am also a creature of the night Henry Beston. And I am a howler too. I play the mouth harp and invite Coyotes and Wolves as well as other Dogs come sing with me.

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Colter's avatar

We take our kids camping and they love it, not because of the day time activities. It’s the campfire and the night that gets them excited to do it again.

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Timothy Fitzpatrick's avatar

Again great art with the writing.I think we all get much from the visual here every time. Thanks

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Maha's avatar

Totally agree!

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Maha's avatar

I was out under the full beaver moon for a spell this morning at about 5:30 AM. It was so very quiet here in the country, and the night was gorgeous.

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Anrael's avatar

She walks in beauty like the night ...

this dark beauty

deep fathomless mystery

swallows the world whole

and gives us a fresh start

giving way with first light.

🖤

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Maha's avatar

That’s exquisite, so beautifully wrought. Attribution please?❤️

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Anrael's avatar

Thank You.

the first line comes from a Lord Byron Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43844/she-walks-in-beauty

the rest ... this voice ...

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Karen Auvinen's avatar

Love this so much. Thanks for the reminder.

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Dian Parker's avatar

The Void. May we embrace the silence of night.

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Emitt's avatar

The beauty of being in the dark night. Sometimes, no stars, no bodily Heaven, just the dark night. Only the Shadow knows. :) My first night under triple canopy on the ground in the land of Vietnam, I could not see my hands, nor the other fools around me. This was an awakening for me as a young man from America.

I live on a street in a neighborhood with light pollution from artificial light. Studies have been done that dark streets cut down on crime. I have to leave town to sit in the dark and look at the starry heavens.

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Samuel Powell's avatar

Wendell Berry's poetry reflects at times, too, on the night and darkness as part of the whole of life. I've found it very redemptive of our often-negative associations with darkness. His agrarian life makes it especially grounding, as is with most of his poetry.

Here is one of his, called "To Know the Dark".

"To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.

To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,

and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,

and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings."

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Lucy's avatar

Absolutely lovely. Thank you for sharing

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Samuel Powell's avatar

I also forgot to mention how much I liked this post. Well said

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Patris's avatar

Beautiful. Thank you for introducing this poet to me.

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Okeko's avatar

"do they fear at night for their dull acquiescence and the pattern of their beliefs?"

Oh yes they do... ☺️

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Ahmedh Aaqil Rifky's avatar

I love it. The poem is the sort that makes you lean back and allowing it to captivate your thoughts for a moment. In today's fast-paced world, many of us are unfamiliar with the idea of taking the time to spend a night under the moonlight, listening to the water crash nearby. The cold winds bring a surreal feeling that we’re losing the opportunity to embrace.

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Sue Cauhape's avatar

Good points. I feel sorry for those who separate themselves from Nature or perhaps have never seen it there. I was surprised to meet a woman who looked up at the sky as we walked along a country road. No artificial lights around, just fully dark sky. "What are those?" she asked. We looked toward the sky and wondered what she meant. "Those," she continued. "Oh, you mean the stars?" I was gobsmacked. "Are they always there?" "Yes, every night all the time." She had lived in Boston all her life and had never seen the night sky.

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Zea Morvitz's avatar

remember reading this years ago … wonderful

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