Natural, hell! What was it Chaucer Said once about the long toil that goes like blood to the poems making? Leave it to nature and the verse sprawls, Limp as bindweed, if it break at all Life's iron crust Man, you must sweat And rhyme your guts taut, if you'd build Your verse a ladder.
R. S. Thomassomewhere within sight of the tree of poetry that is eternity wearing the green leaves of time .
R. S. ThomasTo live in Wales is to be conscious at dusk of the spilled blood that went into the making of the wild sky
R. S. ThomasEven God had a Welsh name : He spoke to him in the old language; He was to have a peculiar care For the Welsh people. History showed us He was too big to be nailed to the wall Of a stone chapel, yet still we crammed him Between the boards of a black book .
R. S. ThomasIt is too late to start For destinations not of the heart . I must stay here with my hurt.
R. S. ThomasThe furies are at home in the mirror; it is their address. Even the clearest water, if deep enough can drown. Never think to surprise them. Your face approaching ever so friendly is the white flag they ignore. There is no truce with the furies. A mirror's temperature is always zero. It is ice in the veins. It's camera is an x-ray. It is a chalice held out to you in silent communion, where gaspingly you partake of a shifting identity never your own.
R. S. Thomas