Etched by Silence: A pilgrimage through the poetry of RS Thomas

by Jim Cotter

This collection of poems by Wales’ most famous poet-priest, R S Thomas, is interspersed with short reflections and questions for exploration that connect the timeless poetry to the landscape that inspired it. Originally produced locally for visitors to the North Wales village and church where R S Thomas was the parish priest, its appeal extends to all who know and love the raw honesty and sparse, striking style of the poetry, and whose own faith and questions are mirrored in it. Aberdaron still welcomes streams of visitors, R S Thomas aficionados and pilgrims en route to the nearby holy island of Bardsey. This book brings the poetry alive in a fresh way and provides a pilgrim guide to the locality, along with reflections that enable armchair readers everywhere to enter more deeply into the world of the poems. All royalties will continue to go to maintaining the church at Aberdaron.

Genres: Poetry

144 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 2013

Reviews

[Penny Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book to savour- the poetry of RS Thomas gently set with the reflections and questioning of Jim Cotter, with plenty of white space.

[Domhnall · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to open the Collected Poems of RS Thomas without finding a poem to love but it's also hard to avoid dipping quickly back to familiar poems, the well worn path being resistant to change, the book falling open in familiar places. It is such a bad habit of mine to take pleasure in recognising the poems I love rather than putting in the additional time with poems that I have not yet appreciated. Soon I fancy I have "done" RST.

All the poems in Jim Cotter's selection are present in the Collected Poems, and he even gives their page numbers, but Etched By Silence succeeds all the same in giving me an entirely fresh experience and a different appreciation. I am struck by poems that I had passed over and neglected, as if they were new rather than duplicates. I know I have already said that all his poems are good and he has wonderful skills with language, so you might think Cotter has an easy enough task, but the challenge is to approach each new poem with real enthusiasm.

The font size is painfully and unnecessarily small, the paper quality rather basic, the handful of black and white illustrations fail to match expectations from the promotional blurb, but the layout is generous all the same, with a double page for each poem, the volume is easy to hold and carry, and the reading experience is pleasant.

Each poem is accompanied by some brief, explanatory remarks and a suggested meditation provoked by its content. It would be quite wrong to describe it as a critical or analytical study, it is nothing of the kind, yet it has that effect in its way, like hanging a painting in a new location, getting the lighting just so, seating the viewer at just this angle and this distance, then leaving them for a time, before returning to demand: 'what do you see now; what were you missing before?' Surely the right way to appreciate great poetry is read it slowly and carefully and then to meditate on it, waiting for the poet to break the silence?

It had begun
by my talking all of the time
repeating the time worn formulae
of the churches in the belief
that was prayer. Why does silence
suggest disapproval? The prattling
ceased... my requests thinned.
I thought I was answering
his deafness with my dumbness...
...And yet there were creatures
around me with their ears
pricked, figures on ancient cathedrals,
the denizens of art, with their rapt
innocent faces on one side
as though they were listening. Ah, but to whom?

[Davidg · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I was rating this on the poetry alone, it would obviously merit 5 stars. However, the book started as a booklet that you could buy at Thomas’s old church at Aberdaron and you could then use it as a pilgrimage guide to the local area. The poems were matched to the scenery where they were written. I am sure it worked well in that locality. It doesn’t work as well when removed from context.

Much as I have loved and use Jim Cotter’s other books, his brief notes on the poems added little. Compared to Janet Morley’s Advent and Lent books, this was a disappointment.

I did enjoy the additional segment, listing many of the questions R S Thomas raises in his poetry and then following it with many of the questions Jesus asks in the Gospels. They make an interesting comparison.