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Greetings. I'm Jim Finley.

And I'm Kirsten Oates.

Welcome to Turning to the Mystics.

Welcome, everyone turning to T.S. Eliot and his poetry in four quartets.

This episode is part two of our conversation with Malcolm Gait.

And in today's episode, Jim, Malcolm and myself reflect on the third and fourth poems in four quartets.

The fourth poem Little Gidding is the grand finale to all three poems, where we find our way to a little chapel to kneel where prayer has been valid

and where we see the mystical nature of all the poems.

So with that, I'm going to hand over to you, Jim,

and you're going to just take us through a small section of the third poem,

Dry Salveagers, before we move on to Little Gidding.

And so we're going to part five of Dry Salvages about halfway through.

So I'll read it.

Men's curiosity searches past and future and clings to that dimension.

But to apprehend the point of intersection

of the timeless with time is the occupation of the saint.

No occupation either, but something given and taken

in a lifetime's death in love.

For most of us, there is only the unattended moment, the moment in and out of time.

The distraction fit, loss, and a shaft of sunlight.

...