Let the Light Pour In is “an experiment in hope”. For 10 years, the My Name Is Why author had been rising at dawn each day, writing a poem and posting it on social media. Those poems have since been turned into songs and tattoos, and emblazoned as murals on city walls.
The project also yielded this collection of poems about early morning and the meeting of darkness and light. In his introduction, Sissay says that poetry is “a daily practice. My meditation. It can take minutes or hours. A friend advised me to ‘Wake with enthusiasm to the dawning of each day’. I like that ‘cause when I write I feel like I am opening the windows to let the light pour in.”
The poems, narrated with verve and charm by their author, feature conversations between night and light – “‘How do you do it?’ said night / ‘How do you wake up and shine?’ ‘I keep it simple,’ said light / ‘One day at a time’” – and between head and heart. While there is a tendency towards mawkishness in some, others are witty or profound, telling of love, resilience and the power of nature and the elements (“The moon tells the sky / The sky tells the sea / The sea tells the tide / And the tide tells me”). In this season of short days and long, dark nights, Let the Light Pour In’s bite-size verse seeks to remind us that darkness is fleeting and that, whatever may be bringing us down, light is around the corner.
• Let the Light Pour In is available via Canongate, 35mins
Further listening
Loosely Based on a Made-Up Story
James Blunt, Hachette Audio, 6hr 1min
Truth and fantasy collide in this improbably entertaining “non-memoir” from the mega-selling singer-songwriter. Read by the author.
Sanditon and Other Stories
Jane Austen, Saga Egmont, 7hr 12min
Avita Jay narrates Austen’s final, unfinished novel, which follows the fortunes of Charlotte Heywood as she makes waves at the eponymous seaside resort.
