With light heart, was inclined to have picked up the pieces (7)
I believe the answer is:
gleaned
'have picked up the pieces' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'with light heart was inclined' is the wordplay.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'heart' says to take the centre.
'was inclined' becomes 'leaned' (to lean is to incline).
The centre of 'light' is 'g'.
'g' put next to 'leaned' is 'GLEANED'.
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gleaned that I've seen before include "Found out" , "A legend (anag.)" , "Harvested, gathered" .)