The Moor by R. S. Thomas

[dragonyphoenix]

Found this on Poetry Chaikhana. It's too beautiful to keep to myself.


The Moor by R. S. Thomas

It was like a church to me.
I entered it on soft foot,
Breath held like a cap in the hand.
It was quiet.
What God was there made himself felt,
Not listened to, in clean colours
That brought a moistening of the eye,
In movement of the wind over grass.

There were no prayers said. But stillness
Of the heart's passions -- that was praise
Enough; and the mind's cession
Of its kingdom. I walked on,
Simple and poor, while the air crumbled
And broke on me generously as bread.

Comments

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Blood's a Rover, which is what Harlan Ellison once said the sequel to A Boy and His Dog, would be called, is a line from A. E. Housman's "Reveille".

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

Sci-fi too: "I Sing the Body Electric" by Ray Bradbury from "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman. I love the poesm of Housman!

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I've only read a couple; they're in a book of poetry I have. "Reveille", obviously since I referred to it, and "When I was young and twenty". I think "Reveille" was the first poem where I saw a line and matched it to a title I knew; I was totally thrilled!

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

Read Housman's "To an Athlete Dying young," "The lovliest of trees, the cherry now," and "A Shropshire Lad." Great stuff.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Nice.

Oh, I was mistaken earlier. I read "Lovlies of trees, the cherry now" in my writing class. That's a beautiful one.