Posted: 14/01/22

Sunrise 12 December - Edmund Williamson

Hull is of many dimensions and proportions and I have been blessed with the opportunity to amalgamate much of it into this one awe-inspiring experience.  Be it the magpie nesting itself despite the protestations of the spikes on Wilberforce’s head, the ducks suicidally missing the box and, with it, me by inches.  As I think especially of these two moments I reminisce that the vigil experience was much like being a bird soaring at magnificent heights.  The city itself below has the duplicity of both an ever moving, ever breathing organism but also of a snapshot of a Covid world where we are all stood in our own box watching the outside world with trepidation.  In many ways it wasn’t what I was expecting.  When I first entered the box I had grandiose ideas of the sun emerging and distilling light magnificently on all.  As the mist blanket dispersed I noticed that this was unlikely to happen due to the smothering of clouds.  This didn’t detract from the experience, however, since the slow release of the drowning switch revealed a sense within me of the luckiness I have to live in such a unique and beautiful city.  The wind turbine plant looking like deheaded dandelions, the Humber Bridge emerging out of the fog, the Maritime Museum with its striking domes.  In such a fast paced world we could all do with slowing down and taking a moment like this to marvel at our city.