Lenten Challenge #9

RS Thomas

Your Challenge for today is to read a poem, specifically The Bright Field by RS Thomas. RS Thomas was Welsh and an Anglican priest. He served a small parish in the coal country of Wales. It is an understatement to say that Thomas was not a “people-person.” According to his son, his sermons could be long drones on “the evil of fridges, washing machines and televisions.” What is unarguable is that he was a great poet who incorporated religious themes into his work without being the least bit trite or sentimental.

After you have spent some time with this poem, it would be wonderful if you could leave a comment below. In a sentence or two, please share what you believe this poem is saying.

The Bright Field
RS 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.

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