At heaven's gate, at break of day, Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, Haply I think of thee - and then my state (like the lark at break of day arising from sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate ; for thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings, that...
Our church generation Out of his spacious, gracious splendour, They prized God and forced Him into their time; And they surrounded and hymned him, So that he all but disappeared Into their darkness. Ranier Maria Rilke (1875-1926).
Glory be to God for dappled things – For skies of couple-colour as a brindled cow; For rose moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut falls; finches wings; Landscape plotted and pierced – fold, fallow, and plough; And all trades, their gear...
Almost a century, and half a world away The children of Hiroshima were all on holiday; Not dreaming of the holocaust the heavens would release – They weren’t concerned with politics, or even peace. The children of Hiroshima, like youngsters anywhere, Ran out to...
Man at the best a creature frail and vain, In knowledge ignorant, in strength but weak, Subject to sorrows, losses, sickness, pain, Each storm his state, his mind, his body break, From some of these he never finds cessation, But day or night, within, without,...
I am deaf or this is dumb, This life and world apart from me To whom betrothed at birth I came, In whose silence most I see A calling soul, calling my scrutiny. You with religious faith, to whom Life speaks in words you understand – Believe, I also with my dumb...
As form in sculpture is the prisoner of the hard rock, so in everyday life it is the plain facts and natural happenings that conceal God and reveal him to us little by little under the mind’s tooling. R.S. Thomas (1913-2000), 'Emergings', Frequencies, 1978.
… All through history the great brush has not rested nor the paint dried; yet what that eye looking coolly, or, as we now, through the tears’ lenses, ever saw this work and it was not finished. R.S. Thomas (1913-2000), Poetry for Supper, 1958.
In the beginning God created the earth, and he looked upon it in his cosmic loneliness. And God said, ‘Let us make creatures out of mud, so mud can see what we have done.’ And God created every living thing that now moveth and one was man. Mud as man alone could...
What we call the beginning is often the end And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from…. … A people without history Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern Of timeless moments. So, while the light fails On a winter’s...
They do not live in the world, Are not in time and space. From birth to death hurled No word do they have, not one To plant a foot upon, were never in any place. For with names the world was called Out of the empty air, With names was built and walled, Line and circle...
Thou art the peace of all things calm Thou art the place to hide from harm Thou art the light that shines in dark Thou art the heart’s eternal spark Thou art the door that’s open wide Thou art the guest who waits inside Thou art the stranger at the door Thou art the...