Dereliction and Reflection.
I took this picture during a photography course a few months ago. We walked down a canal in Sheffield and this derelict building caught my attention with its rich palate of browns and reds reflected in the murky water. When I look at it now I can see a deep beauty in dereliction and reflection. It also triggers a sense of loneliness. This building, obviously had some function within the life of the canal, with its bricked up openings onto the water. Now it is lonely and unused.
It strikes me forcefully that there are elements of my life that become like this. I can become so engrossed in a phase of my life that other facets are neglected. It is only when we are, either forced to stop and take notice of what is unnoticed, or as in the case of the photography course, we take the time stroll around the hinterland of ourselves and see what has been neglected.
The beauty in the dereliction and the way it is casting a reflection, somewhere down in my unconscious, is just beginning to dawn upon me. If I can appreciate the grace of both the dereliction and the resonance of the reflection then some thing may awaken in me and offer to me a new avenue of creativity and wonder. That which has been unused may have another, more relevant practise that leads me onto a new phase. As my poem ‘Arriving in Magic’ says:
‘An old skin sheds no longer needed,
a way of good belonging now
outdated, letting go its grip I
find my orbit round a greater force.’