Status Updates From R. S. Thomas (Phoenix Poetry)

And laying aside the pen, dipped
Not in tears’ volatile liquid
But in the black ink of the heart’s well,
To read again what the hand has written
To the many voices’ quiet dictation.

Something to bring back to show
you have been there: a lock of God's
hair, stolen from him while he was
asleep; a photograph of the garden
of the spirit. As has been said,
the point of travelling is not
to arrive, but to return home
laden with pollen you shall work up into the honey the mind feeds on.

Excerpt from “Something”, p. 110

There is always the thin pane of glass set up between us
And our desires.
We stare and state and stare, until the night comes
And the glass is superfluous.

R.S. Thomas, Selected Poems, p. 16
from The Minister, 1953

p.2 ♥

"I yield, since no wisdom lies
In seeking to go his way;
A man without knowledge am I
Of the quality of his joy;
Yet living souls, a prodigious number,
Bright-faced as dawn, invest God's chamber."