And I standing in the shade
Have seen it a thousand times
Happen: first theft, then murder;
Rape; the rueful acts
Of the blind hand. I have said
New prayers, or said the old
In a new way. Seeking the poem
In the pain, I have learned
Silence is best, praying for it
With my conscience. I am eyes
Merely, witnessing virtue's
Defeat; seeing the young born
Fair, knowing the cancer
Awaits them. One thing I have asked
Of the disposer of the issues
Of life: that truth should defer
To beauty. It was not granted.
by R. S. Thomas
from H'm (1972)
Tag: speaking with God
Calling by R. S. Thomas
The telephone is the fruit
of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. We may call
everyone up on it but God.
To do that is to declare
that he is far off. Dialling
zero is nothing other
than the negation of his presence.
So many times I have raised
the receiver, listening to
that smooth sound that is technology’s
purring; and the temptation
has come to experiment
with the code which would put
me through to the divine
snarl at the perimeter of such tameness.
by R. S. Thomas
from Experimenting with an Amen (1986)
Rambling At The Bridge Head 