the chapel amber

when: three p.m., late autumn· where: through stained glass· colour temp: 2900 K (filtered)

the chapel amber comes through the lower south window, where the glass is set in lead and the red is more honest than the gold. it falls slowly. it lands on stone. it makes a small warm country on the floor about three feet by two.

what it reveals is the dust. the dust is suddenly important. you can see the slow turning of motes that were always there, doing this work whether or not anyone came in. it reveals the corner of a chapel door, the edge of a hymnal, a knee.

it hides the rest of the chapel. the rest of the chapel becomes a darker chapel by contrast, a chapel that is mostly waiting. compare attic blue, which also enters through a single pane but lets nothing belong to it.

field note · w.s., 1967 the amber is at its strongest the week after michaelmas, when the sun is low enough to enter the lower lights for forty minutes. it has been this way, presumably, since the glass was set in 1483. see chapel porch, overhang.