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        Pete Atkin >> Words >> TLS -“Too Much Light" by Clive James
        
(Message started by: Kevin Cryan on Today at 12:33)

Title: TLS -“Too Much Light" by Clive James
Post by Kevin Cryan on Today at 12:33

“Too Much Light” (http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1141101.ece)

By Clive James

Published: 5 October 2012

M y cataracts invest the bright spring day
With extra glory, with a glow that stings.
The shimmering shields above the college gates –
Heraldic remnants of the queens and kings –
Flaunt liquid paint here at the end of things
When my vitality at last abates,
And all these forms bleed, spread and make a blur
Of what, to second sight, they are and were.

And now I slowly pace, a stricken beast,
Across a lawn which must be half immersed
In crocuses and daffodils, but I
Can only see for sure the colours burst
And coalesce as if they were the first
Flowers I ever saw. Thus, should I die,
I’ll go back through the gate I entered when
My eyes were stunned, as now they are again.

CLIVE JAMES

Kevin Cryan