R S Thomas (poet)
@rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
590 followers 4 following 690 posts
famous Welsh poet in English language 1913-2000 “…catching this / one truth by surprise / that there is everything to look forward to…” #RSThomas #poetry #barddoniaeth 📍 yng Nghymru, wrth gwrs facebook.com/groups/RSThomas/
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rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
Diolch yn fawr iawn i Martin Roberts @ffoto.bsky.social am y llun hyfryd ac y gwên! Many thanks for this photo, especially the smile!
Black and white photo of head of smiling elderly man
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
‘Pilgrimages’ - #RSThomas
(Frequencies, Macmillan)
maryearnshaw.bsky.social
I am a big fan of RS Thomas. And feel for poor Mildred. I've often been in the church in Aberdaron and this summer was able to get, for a second time, to Bardsey/Ynys Enlli. He dares to bare his soul. I love the poem Pilgrimages, 'such a fast God, always before us and leaving as we arrive.'
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
Hello, if you like #RSThomas then you might be interested in following this Bluesky account @RSThomaspoet, also facebook.com/groups/RSThomas/
- share his poems, quotes, events, info, Q+A, etc.
- and there’s a Society you can join… rsthomaspoetry.co.uk/rs-thomas-me-eldridge-society/
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‘Other’ - #RSThomas
(H'm, Macmillan)
gadflyacademy.bsky.social
…The machine appeared
In the distance, singing to itself
Of money. Its song was the web
They were caught in, men and women
Together. The villages were as flies
To be sucked empty.
God secreted
A tear. Enough, enough,
He commanded, but the machine
Looked at him and went on singing.
‘Other,’ RS Thomas
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
Hello, if you like #RSThomas then you might be interested in following this Bluesky account @RSThomaspoet, also facebook.com/groups/RSThomas/
- share his poems, quotes, events, info, Q+A, etc.
- and there’s a Society you can join… rsthomaspoetry.co.uk/rs-thomas-me-eldridge-society/
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Here’s an interesting short thread about RS Thomas and ME Eldridge, including a link to a radio program about them. And here’s a link to the website about Elsi Eldridge and her art: meeldridge.com
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
‘One Way’ - #RSThomas
(Between Here and Now, Macmillan)
#Bardd #Barddoniaeth #Cerdd
#Poet #Poetry #Poem
Text of poem -

One Way.
There was a frontier
I crossed whose passport was human speech. Looking back was to silence, to that wood of hands fumbling for the unseen thing. I named it and it was here. I held out words to them and they smelled them. Space gave, time was eroded. There was one being would not reply. God, I whispered, refining my technique, signalling to him on the frequencies I commanded. But always amid the air's garrulousness there was the one station that remained closed.
Was
there an alternative
medium? There were some claimed to be able to call him down to drink insatiably at the dark sumps of blood.
Reposted by R S Thomas (poet)
michaelcymro.bsky.social
‘A Day in Autumn’ - #RSThomas
(Poetry for Supper, Rupert Hart-Davis)
Text of poem -

A Day in Autumn.
It will not always be like this, The air windless, a few last Leaves adding their decoration
To the trees' shoulders, braiding the cuffs Of the boughs with gold; a bird preening
In the lawn's mirror. Having looked up From the day's chores, pause a minute, Let the mind take its photograph Of the bright scene, something to wear Against the heart in the long cold.
- RS Thomas
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
@jessicawhippl17.bsky.social
Diolch, thank you. If you like #RSThomas then you might be interested in following this Bluesky account @RSThomaspoet, also facebook.com/groups/RSThomas/
- share his poems, quotes, events, info, Q+A, etc.
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rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
Hello, if you like #RSThomas then you might be interested in following this Bluesky account @RSThomaspoet, also facebook.com/groups/RSThomas/
- share his poems, quotes, events, info, Q+A, etc.
- and there’s a Society you can join… rsthomaspoetry.co.uk/rs-thomas-me-eldridge-society/
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‘Pluperfect’ - #RSThomas
(Between Here and Now, Macmillan)
djp1974.bsky.social
PLUPERFECT
By #RSThomas

It was because there was nothing to do
that I did it; because silence was golden
I broke it. There was a vacuum
I found myself in, full of echoes
of dead languages. Where to turn
when there are no corners? In curved
space I kept on arriving
at my departures.
Reposted by R S Thomas (poet)
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
‘Seventieth Birthday’ - #RSThomas
(Between Here and Now, Macmillan)
#Bardd #Barddoniaeth #Cerdd
#Poet #Poetry #Poem
Text of poem -

Seventieth Birthday.
Made of tissue and H20, and activated by cells
firing - Ah, heart, the legend of your person ! Did I invent it, and is it in being still?
In the competition with other women your victory is assured.
It is time, as Yeats said, is
the caterpillar in the cheek's rose, the untiring witherer of your petals.
You are drifting away from
me on the whitening current of your hair.
I lean far out from the bone's bough, knowing the hand I extend can save nothing of you but your love.
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
Hello, if you like #RSThomas then you might be interested in following this Bluesky account @RSThomaspoet, also facebook.com/groups/RSThomas/
- share his poems, quotes, events, info, Q+A, etc.
- and there’s a Society you can join… rsthomaspoetry.co.uk/rs-thomas-me-eldridge-society/
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rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
Diolch, thank you. If you like #RSThomas then you might be interested in following this Bluesky account @RSThomaspoet, also facebook.com/groups/RSThomas/
- share his poems, quotes, events, info, Q+A, etc.
- and there’s a Society you can join… rsthomaspoetry.co.uk/rs-thomas-me-eldridge-society/
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rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
‘Seventieth Birthday’ - #RSThomas
(Between Here and Now, Macmillan)
#Bardd #Barddoniaeth #Cerdd
#Poet #Poetry #Poem
Text of poem -

Seventieth Birthday.
Made of tissue and H20, and activated by cells
firing - Ah, heart, the legend of your person ! Did I invent it, and is it in being still?
In the competition with other women your victory is assured.
It is time, as Yeats said, is
the caterpillar in the cheek's rose, the untiring witherer of your petals.
You are drifting away from
me on the whitening current of your hair.
I lean far out from the bone's bough, knowing the hand I extend can save nothing of you but your love.
Reposted by R S Thomas (poet)
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
‘The Bright Field’ - #RSThomas
(Laboratories of the Spirit, Macmillan)
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
‘The Bright Field’ - #RSThomas
(Laboratories of the Spirit, Macmillan)
Reposted by R S Thomas (poet)
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
Bu farw Vernon Watkins ar y diwrnod hwn ym 1967. Dyma deyrnged serchog gan fardd Cymreig arall, ei ffrind RS Thomas…
Vernon Watkins died on this day in 1967. Here's an affectionate tribute by another Welsh poet, his friend RS Thomas…
‘The Bank Clerk’ (Uncollected Poems, Bloodaxe Books)
Text of poem -

The Bank Clerk.
It was not the shillings he heard, But the clinking of the waves In the gullies and rocks of Pwll Du. Turning them over To the customers at the counter He offered them the rich change Of his mind, the real coinage Of language for their dry cheques.
Punctually in the evenings At Pennard he returned to The poem's sum, wrestling with it For delight, but with the sea's Care, that on the blank sand Tots itself.
Clerks, businessmen,
Grousers about the cost
Of a poet, he has balanced honourably His accounts, but - what about you?
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
Bu farw Vernon Watkins ar y diwrnod hwn ym 1967. Dyma deyrnged serchog gan fardd Cymreig arall, ei ffrind RS Thomas…
Vernon Watkins died on this day in 1967. Here's an affectionate tribute by another Welsh poet, his friend RS Thomas…
‘The Bank Clerk’ (Uncollected Poems, Bloodaxe Books)
Text of poem -

The Bank Clerk.
It was not the shillings he heard, But the clinking of the waves In the gullies and rocks of Pwll Du. Turning them over To the customers at the counter He offered them the rich change Of his mind, the real coinage Of language for their dry cheques.
Punctually in the evenings At Pennard he returned to The poem's sum, wrestling with it For delight, but with the sea's Care, that on the blank sand Tots itself.
Clerks, businessmen,
Grousers about the cost
Of a poet, he has balanced honourably His accounts, but - what about you?
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
‘The Bush’ - #RSThomas
(Later Poems, 1972–1982, Macmillan London)
arealmofwonder.bsky.social
This poem made me think of the Jewish community in Britain and Ireland.

(May what can be inferred from the last verse not come to pass.)

R.S. Thomas
Reposted by R S Thomas (poet)
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
‘Aleph’ - #RSThomas
(Between Here and Now, Macmillan)
#Bardd #Barddoniaeth #Cerdd
#Poet #Poetry #Poem
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
‘Aleph’ - #RSThomas
(Between Here and Now, Macmillan)
#Bardd #Barddoniaeth #Cerdd
#Poet #Poetry #Poem
Reposted by R S Thomas (poet)
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
‘The Bright Field’ - #RSThomas
(Laboratories of the Spirit, Macmillan)
pamelaclemit.bsky.social
R. S. Thomas, ‘The Bright Field’, from Laboratories of the Spirit (1975) #NationalPoetryDay
Reposted by R S Thomas (poet)
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
‘Children’s Song’ - #RSThomas (Song at the Year's Turning, Rupert Hart-Davis)
telescoper.bsky.social
The theme for #NationalPoetryDay is #play. So here's Children's Song by R.S. Thomas.
We live in our own world,
A world that is too small
For you to stoop and enter
Even on hands and knees,
The adult subterfuge.
And though you probe and pry
With analytic eye,
And eavesdrop all our talk
With an amused look,
You cannot find the centre
Where we dance, where we play,
Where life is still asleep
Under the closed flower,
Under the smooth shell
Of eggs in the cupped nest
That mock the faded blue
Of your remoter heaven.
rsthomaspoet.bsky.social
Hello, if you like #RSThomas then you might be interested in following this Bluesky account @RSThomaspoet, also facebook.com/groups/RSThomas/
- share his poems, quotes, events, info, Q+A, etc.
- and there’s a Society you can join… rsthomaspoetry.co.uk/rs-thomas-me-eldridge-society/
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‘The Bright Field’ - #RSThomas
(Laboratories of the Spirit, Macmillan)
pamelaclemit.bsky.social
R. S. Thomas, ‘The Bright Field’, from Laboratories of the Spirit (1975) #NationalPoetryDay