A good many years ago, while visiting the National Cathedral in Washington DC I bought my first R.S. Thomas poetry book from the cathedral gift shop. Today I have many of his poetry collections on my book shelf. These books feel like good friends as I often have good conversation with the words on their pages. His mixture of belief and doubt, darkness and light, and his ongoing search for homeland and hope keeps me engaged. In his poem The Way of It we catch a rare glimpse of the poet’s love and devotion to his wife, as she turns paint into flowers, and always mending the garment of our marriage. Please use the link to discover Elsi Eldridge’s work as an artist. https://meeldridge.com/ In the poem one line of what feels harsh criticism leads to a line of beautiful praise. Please take time to discover his poems – I hold all his words with deep appreciation and delight. https://www.poeticous.com/r-s-thomas
The Way of It
With her fingers she turns paint
into flowers, with her body
flowers into a remembrance
of herself. She is at work
always, mending the garment
of our marriage, foraging
like a bird for something
for us to eat. If there are thorns
in my life, it is she who
will press her breast to them and sing.
Her words, when she would scold,
are too sharp. She is busy
after for hours rubbing smiles
into the wounds. I saw her,
when young, and spread the panoply
of my feathers instinctively
to engage her. She was not deceived,
but accepted me as a girl
will under a thin moon
in love’s absence as someone
she could build a home with
for her imagined child. R.S. Thomas
Prayer:
Holy God,
as the wind hurries the clouds,
at times their parting is just long enough
for the sun to illuminate a small field.
Too soon we forget, yet that field was
the one that had a pearl of great price, the field
that had treasure in it.
Too soon we forget.
Remind us, O Lord,
to pause and ponder,
Remind us, O Lord,
that Life
is not hurrying on to a receding future, nor
hankering after an imagined past.
Like Moses, to the miracle of the bush,
help us to see that the sun on the field is full
of the eternity that awaits us.
Too soon we forget. Amen (adapted from the poem The Bright Field
https://www.poeticous.com/r-s-thomas/the-bright-field)
Prayers, Poems, and Christian Ponderings 
Perhaps your hills of heather and gorse are your “Moors”. I once heard my father say that people who are touched through the heart and enlightened by the mind will experience reverence to God wherever they are, be it on a moor, by the ocean, in the woods. He had a great sense of humor and told me that a Swedish friend told him that many of the grand churches and cathedrals were frequented by many people on only 3 occasions; when hatched, when matched and when dispatched. And so he concluded that it’s a good thing that there is so much beauty in the world for those who would only look.
As for the Way of It, I really like how Thomas has condensed the concept of marital devotion from what is a truly complex relationship to a simple visualization. It’s a lovely poem that packs a lot of meaning. Change a few words and the poem becomes a wedding vow of promises; I will paint, I will forage, I will mend…
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