Our good friend Milverton Wallace in London shared a link last night to a BBC “programme” that will soon disappear from the Internet. It is a great piece of radio journalism about the personal challenges of a monarch (George VI), the uncertainties of war (World War II), the fears of a nation, and a simple poem written a century ago.
Milverton set this little piece against the backdrop of a depressed people. Here are his words of introduction: “It’s the eve of the Winter Solstice and I’ve never known people in this country to be so depressed. The airports are closed, many motorways are grid-locked or snowbound and retailers are taking a beating as customers cannot get to the shops. Talk about a ‘bleak mid-winter!'”
The radio broadcast may be found for a few more days at http://bbc.in/gBoImr
The poem around which this piece of radio magic was woven was written by Marie Louise Haskins originally under the title of “God Knows” and later disseminated under the title of “The Gate of the Year.”
The Gate of the Year (aka God Knows)
And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:“Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown!”And he replied:“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”So, I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the nightAnd He led me toward the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.