R.S. Thomas, untitled poems from The Echoes Return Slow
I have no name:
time's changeling.
Put your hand
in my side and disbelieve
-
in my godhead.
Her face rises
over me and sets;
I am shone on
-
through tears. Charity
spares what should be
lopped off, before
it is too late.
(p. 3)
-
Entered for life, failing
to qualify; understudied
for his persona, became identical
with his twin. Confronted
as the other, knew credit
was his for the triumph
of an imposture. Slipped easily
into the role for which
his double was cast, bowing
as low as he to appropriate
the applause. When volunteers
were called for to play
death's part, stood modestly
in the wings, preferring rather
to be prompter than prompted.
(p. 21).
-
And this one says to me:
You are an occasion
merely; an event synchronous
with other events,
not caused by them.
I switch my attention.
There are voices supperannuating
the Bible. I must learn,
they say, to believe in a presence
without existence.
Is it
the Orient infiltrating
our science, or science bringing
a myth up to date?
In a dissolving
world what certainties
for the self, whose identity
is its performance?
You have no address,
says life, and your destination
is where you began.
But love answers it
in its turn: I am old now and have died
many times, but my rebirth is surer
than the truth embalming itself
in the second law of your Thermo-Dynamics.
(p 33).
Thomas, R.S. The Echoes Return Slow. London: Macmillan, 1988.
26 Jun 2007 11:38
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Jane Holland
I love RS Thomas, he’s so calming. Reading his best poems is like meditating; you can feel your brainwaves slowing down and shifting onto a different frequency.
Congratulations on the new book, by the way. I saw it in the Bloodaxe Autumn catalogue, just arrived. The Secret … an alluring title, do let me know when the launch is or any other readings you’ll be doing that I could get to.
And hey, some key members of the Poem Forum jumped ship yesterday to my own forum, Poets On Fire, due to massive problems logging into the Poem forum. If you, or David Morley, or anyone at Warwick want to register at Poets on Fire and discuss contemporary poetry there, you’d all be very welcome.
Come and have a look at what we’re doing there, anyway. Here’s the address: http://z11.invisionfree.com/Poets_On_Fire/index.php?
Hope to hear some of those new poems soon!
Jane x
26 Jun 2007, 13:47
Hi Jane, glad you like R.S. Thomas. The Echoes Return Slow is good, but I am not so keen on the Welsh bashing poems. Thanks for the congratulations and for telling me about your poetry forum. It looks really good. I will pass on the word to anyone else I know too. x Zoe
26 Jun 2007, 15:48
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