No Through Road by R. S. Thomas

All in vain. I will cease now

My long absorption with the plough,

With the tame and the wild creatures

and man united with the earth.

I have failed after many seasons

In the mind’s precincts do not apply.

 

But where to turn? Earth endures

After the passing, necessary shame

Of winter, and the old lie

Of green places beckons me still

From the new world, ugly and evil,

That men pry for in truth’s name.

 

by R. S. Thomas

from Song at the Year’s Turning (1955)

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Concession by R. S. Thomas

Not that he brought flowers

Except for the eyes’ blue,

Perishable ones, or that his hands,

Famed for kindness were put then

To such usage; but rather that, going

Through flowers later, she yet could feel

These he spared perhaps for my sake.

 

by R. S. Thomas

from Not That He Brought Flowers (1968)