Happy centenary today, R. S. Thomas!

Check here for events commemorating R. S. Thomas centenary year and here for review of his verse drama 'The Minister' broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on Good Friday

Good Friday by R. S. Thomas

It was quiet. What had the sentry

to cry, but that it was the ninth hour

and all was not well? The darkness

began to lift, but it was not the mind 

was illumined. The carpenter

had done his work well to sustain

the carpenter’s burden; the Cross an example

of the power of art to transcend timber.

 

Butterfly Movement by R. S. Thomas 

Butterfly movement 

as though a rainbow

had taken wing, falling

with the softness of light

on our horizon, a reminder

of Gods’ promise to lay

aside wrath. And what,

this moment at gaze 

in the afternoon sun,

we ask, was the nature

of our sin that it deserved

so beautifully to be forgiven?