Margaret Cooter

I was so pleased to meet with Margaret Cooter while in England recently. We first met a few years ago, introduced by a mutual friend, Hilary Gooding, when we three spent a morning exploring the atmospheric grounds of Highgate Cemetery in North London. I have been following her blog ever since.

Margaret's eclectic interests are reflected in her wide range of postings. She posts about workshops she is taking in drawing and printmaking, and about the adventures of her regular sketching group. She posts about her bookmaking projects and her explorations of dipping stitched fabric into porcelain slip. Often she will post interesting photos taken while walking around London, or on her visits to London exhibitions, and sometimes she will just post a wonderful poem.

Perhaps you will find this poem, which she featured on her blog last month, as remarkable as I did.

The Bright Field

I have seen the sun break through

to illuminate a small field

for a while, and gone my way

and forgotten it. But that was the

pearl of great price, the one field that had

treasure in it. I realise now

that I must give all that I have

to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after

an imagined past. It is the turning

aside like Moses to the miracle

of the lit bush, to a brightness

that seemed as transitory as your youth

once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

- R S Thomas (1913-2000)