This poem, beautifully read, touches me deeply. It brings tears to my eyes and I feel stirred to the roots of my being. Thank you Cathleen Raine, and thank you Iain.
This poem is quite, quite brilliant. I remember the first time I read McGilchrist — it was one of those rare moments when the world suddenly looks different, as though someone had quietly opened a door you didn’t know was there. Even now, having followed his work for a few years, I’m still surprised at how much more he allows me to see and, more importantly, to comprehend.
What he’s given me above all is a renewed sense of the value of “truth, goodness and beauty.” Not as lofty abstractions, but as things we encounter directly — if we pay the right kind of attention. Poetry, music, the sacred, the turning of the seasons, the play of light on old stone, the depth of history and tradition — all these speak more vividly when seen with the right hemisphere’s gift for context and connection.
As McGilchrist reminds us in The Matter With Things, “Beauty, morality and truth have been downgraded, dismissed or denied. If you want to see the consequences, you need do no more than look around you.” That’s why a poem like Raine’s matters so much. It feels like a counter-spell, helping us take in the world as a luminous whole, where everything is interconnected and alive. And if, by the end, you find yourself quietly astonished at how much the world can still surprise you — well, that is precisely the point.
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Wow! I need more poetry in my existence, too much emissary. Time for master to have its cup of tea.
Oh magic! Thank you.
Beautiful poem Thank you. It is quite bleak wintery day here in South Africa. This is just what I needed
This poem, beautifully read, touches me deeply. It brings tears to my eyes and I feel stirred to the roots of my being. Thank you Cathleen Raine, and thank you Iain.
Wow! This poem is amazing! Thanks for sharing. You have a great voice for poetics.
Kindest thanks for this gift 🦋
This poem is quite, quite brilliant. I remember the first time I read McGilchrist — it was one of those rare moments when the world suddenly looks different, as though someone had quietly opened a door you didn’t know was there. Even now, having followed his work for a few years, I’m still surprised at how much more he allows me to see and, more importantly, to comprehend.
What he’s given me above all is a renewed sense of the value of “truth, goodness and beauty.” Not as lofty abstractions, but as things we encounter directly — if we pay the right kind of attention. Poetry, music, the sacred, the turning of the seasons, the play of light on old stone, the depth of history and tradition — all these speak more vividly when seen with the right hemisphere’s gift for context and connection.
As McGilchrist reminds us in The Matter With Things, “Beauty, morality and truth have been downgraded, dismissed or denied. If you want to see the consequences, you need do no more than look around you.” That’s why a poem like Raine’s matters so much. It feels like a counter-spell, helping us take in the world as a luminous whole, where everything is interconnected and alive. And if, by the end, you find yourself quietly astonished at how much the world can still surprise you — well, that is precisely the point.