A personal sense of hiraeth, from a soft night on a distant shore

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Hiraeth is a complex Welsh word that doesn't easily translate into English because it doesn't have a single, perfect English translation. Commonly understood to English speakers as "homesickness", it actually has a much deeper and more nuanced meaning that includes longings and nostalgia beyond those of simply missing a place or person. Hiraeth encompasses a sense of melancholy and wistfulness for a past that can't be recaptured. Or in my case, in this instance, for a place I've never been and moments in time that are no longer available to me.

This sense of hiraeth is a longing for that deeply satisfying feeling when you find yourself in an exotic location at that captivating moment when the light and atmosphere coalesce into a gift of the spirit-of-place. It is as personal as a sense of home, yet as unique as each place where it happens. It chimes in the heart and is unforgettable.

The prompt is one line from a poem that resonates with the concept of hiraeth: 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree', by W. B. Yeats.