when: no moon, late night· where: an open field, no town near· a no-light · seen
the moonless light is a contradiction the eye learns to read after twenty minutes. there is no moon. there is no far lamp. there is no light. and yet, slowly, the field becomes a field again. the hedge reappears. the gate is somewhere. this is what the eye does when no one is helping it.
it reveals what is darker than the air and what is paler. it reveals the chalk of a path. it reveals one's own hand if one's own hand is in front of one's own face. it reveals, after a while, that you can keep walking, very slowly, and that the walking is a kind of seeing.
it hides almost everything that the world thought was important. it hides colour entirely. it hides the difference between sky and sea where there is no edge to find. it agrees with midnight and with nothing and is closer to silence than to any other light.
see also · midnight nothing lamp far attic blue black