Dear Hannah,
It’s April 6, 2020. Everything has changed overnight. Going outside is limited to essentials, I spend my days indoors and find the chance to escape at night. I sit on one of the benches of the deserted Grand-Place and look up at the night sky. The stars are still there, but still only few of them are visible in the city. It makes me long for your nighttime view in rural Vermaaklikheid. I want to look at the stars from the small verandah outside your kitchen. I wonder:
Could you sit there for me tonight? Could you be my eyes?
Posts Tagged ‘06/04’
Stars
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Dear Rita,
The weather is getting colder. I put on my warm jacket (the red one) and a light green woollen hat and went outside the kitchen door:
You sit down on the verandah with legs dangling over the side of the low wall. You realize quickly that the moon is full which means that the stars are not at their brightest. There is a moment of disappointment. Your gaze keeps coming back to the moon and then wandering out into the sky. You can still see the Southern Cross and other stars which you can’t identify. You think you can see Venus (but you aren’t sure). You can see craters on the moon and find it impossible to grasp how this bright ball hovers there, illuminating the night throughout time. There is hardly any electrical light; a world almost entirely lit by moonlight. The light is hard to describe now….. a kind of ‘dark light’. You look at the landscape and feel tempted to take a walk but you stay and sit quietly. The quieter you become, the louder the landscape sounds. You focus on the sound. Birds, insects, animals which only exist after dark are all awake, growing louder…singing, chirping, calling, communicating. You want to lie down in the soundscape, the night song; lullaby for a full moon.