The Sea of Time and Space. William Blake. 1821.
As I’m sitting here at Heathrow waiting for my flight back to Boston my heart and my mind are full of thoughts and emotions. We oftentimes tend to dwell on grief, loss and heartache—broken relationships, silence, distance, and, of course, death. But we rarely speak about the experience of meeting new people and making a new friend. Of all my trips to London, this has been my best experience because of a new friend.
I am reading Caroline Bird’s poetry collection (one of several books I bought on my trip) from Carcanet, “Looking Through Letterboxes” and her poem “Geography Lesson” seems especially fitting:
When you’ve reached the peak,
the summit, the end,
you’ve come to the limit,
let me tell you gently
that the world is round, my sweet,
and it’s all a long walk backwards,
starting from here.
Maybe I’m just too much of an optimist. But I think that, even as an adult, if we keep our minds and hearts open it is possible to meet fantastic, new friends. But as Bird also says in one of her poems, “Only takes you so far, fate.”
The Blake piece also seems fitting and was one of my favorites at The Tate exhibit: ” The Sea of Time and Space” which deals with, among many things, the theme of choice.
More on my trip later, when I’m home and have time to think.
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