Dark Water at Night - Owen Knight - Bog

A Collection of Poems (Revised Second Edition) -- In the investigation of a moonlit seascape, seldom would the investigator limit himself to an analysis of the total of physical materials: of air, of light, of water. More likely, the investigator would spend his time allowing his thoughts to wander among possibilities evoked by those half lights and lurking shadow. He sees the shapes flood in, as by a magic, from little investigated thoughts and nearly forgotten dreams. This is the direction an investigation of a seascape usually takes; particularly one made at night, by moonlight. Life seems kin to night, more under the cloak of the dark unknown than fully within the bright light known. So; any seascape is, rightly seen, like that of night, under the darkness of the unknown. So, day or night, the life I portray is life as under moonlight, pale fingers of light gently caressing shapes shrouded in darkness; masked by suggestive, but concealing snows of exteriors. Indeed, more may be glimpsed by half looks in half lights than may be seen by limiting hard looks and hard lights; those half lights which are, as flitting moon shadows, ever drawing from, and evoking, dreams. I say flitting moon shadows, because the look we get is always brief. So, let my light pass from shadow into dream; from dream again into shadow.