29 May 2007

More R S Thomas

I stumbled across his biography on a shelf of a forgotten bookcase a couple of days ago. He's up there with Larkin and Betjeman.

The Bright Field

I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
the treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
.
on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

2 comments:

Jeffrey Smith said...

I've never heard of R S Thomas, but I'm certainly going to find more.

Fr Longenecker said...

v.nice. R.S.Thomas is the last of the British country parson poets. I wanted to be one once.