Darkness

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.

John Martin's Apocalypse, Tate Britain, Pimilco, Westminster, SW1P

The bright sun was extinguish’d, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,

Glendalough, County Wicklow, Ireland

Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;

Mike Leigh's Naked (1993)

Morn came and went–and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread

Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood (1952)

Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill’d into a selfish prayer for light…

Bill Callahan's Apocalypse (2011)

From Lord Byron’s Darkness (1816)

Nymphs of the Stream

They hide in the brook when I seek to draw nearer,
Laughing amain when I feign to depart;

Oceanides, York House Gardens, Twickenham, TW1

Often I hear them, now faint and now clearer—
Innocent bold or so sweetly discreet.

Oceanides, York House Gardens, Twickenham, TW1

Are they Nymphs of the Stream at their playing
Or but the brook I mistook for a voice?

Oceanides, York House Gardens, Twickenham, TW1

Little care I; for, despite harsh Time’s flaying,
Brook voice or Nymph voice still makes me rejoice.

From Ellis Parker Butler’s The Water Nymphs

Eel Pie Island

You see, the thing is, Brian, that God is a hateful god.

Eel Pie Island, Twickenham, TW1

Must be, because if God is good, then why is there evil in the world?

Eel Pie Island, Twickenham, TW1

Why is there pain and hate and greed and war? Doesn’t make sense.

Eel Pie Island, Twickenham, TW1

But if God is a nasty bastard, then you can say, “Why is there good in the world?

Eel Pie Island, Twickenham, TW1

Why is there love and hope and joy?”

Eel Pie Island, Twickenham, TW1

From Mike Leigh’s screenplay for Naked (1995)