Golden Hill by Bridget Guerzon Mills www.guerzonmills.com

The Bright Field

by R. S. Thomas

I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the
pearl of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

It has been proffered that the three great poets of the twentieth century were Eliot (the American), Yeats (the Irishman), and Thomas (the Welshman).

There is a difference between simple and simplistic. The poetry of the late Welsh poet and Anglican priest R. S. Thomas is simple, often profound, but not simplistic. His economy of words is marked by a conscious frugality that resembled the bony landscape of his once-chiseled face. This is a poem worthy of lectio—a slow, meditative, prayerful pondering word by word, line-by-line.

All the wise ones from all the wisdom traditions place a high priority on being present. Be here now is a universally encouraged practice. Be on the lookout for the lit bush today. They are burning all around us, for those who have eyes to see and take the time to appreciate them. Most are not as eye-catching or spectacular as a burning bush that is not consumed, more often like a solar sliver of light cast on a small field and then gone. Taking notice itself is a spiritual practice that leads to beholding and appreciating and standing in awe.

To hear R. S. Thomas read this poem, click here.

ARTWORK: Golden Hills, Bridgette Guerzon Mills.