Shimmering Haze 1939

SJ Dawson, The Cock Inn, Stock, Near Ingatestone, Essex.

… “And laughed with him and sung with him and wasted,
In feast and wine and many crown’d carouse,
The days and nights and dawnings of the time
When Youth kept open house.”

At the beginning of Shimmering haze 1939:

Thank God! I have not, after all, lost – imagination and dreams! I began to think they and their gay companions had gone for ever, leaving me a wooden, stolid plodding man. Writing a diary ceased to be a joy and to write sentences like these would have been impossible or not sincere. Yet they had not deserted me, perhaps just run away for awhile. Now that they have returned, nothing can cheat me. I will “live and thou canst rob me now, only of some long life…”

The deeper things have come dancing back to me! Perhaps they came out of the moonlit sea at Southend as I sat on the slowly disappearing stone steps at midnight, with two friends. I can’t say why they are here again – I just know.

Laughter, Tears, Colour, Dreams, Fancy, Imagination, Song, Beauty… and all the rest.
I greet you again!