Monday, July 31, 2017

That was the pearl of great price (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. 

--R. S. Thomas, 
The Bright Field

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