Saturday 22 May 2010

The Bright Field - R. S. 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
the treasure in it. I realize 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.

Postscript - Seamus Heaney

And some time make the time to drive out west
Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,
In September or October, when the wind
And the light are working off each other
So that the ocean on one side is wild
With foam and glitter, and inland among stones
The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit
By the earthed lightning of a flock of swans,
Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,
Their fully grown headstrong-looking heads
Tucked or cresting or busy underwater.
Useless to think you'll park and capture it
More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,
A hurry through which known and strange things pass
As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways
And catch the heart off guard and blow it open. 

Breakfast - Jaques Prevert

He put the coffee
In his cup
He put the milk
In the cup of coffee
He put the sugar
In the cup of coffee
He stirred it
With the little spoon
He drank the coffee
And he put the cup down
Without speaking to me
He lit
A cigarette
He blew rings
With the smoke
He put the ash
In the ash-tray
Without speaking to me
Without looking at me
He got up
He put
His hat on
He put his raincoat on
Because it was raining
And he went out
Into the rain
Without a word
Without looking at me
And I put
My head in my hands
And I cried

Incandescent May 2010

1. Jacques Prevert 'Breakfast' Juliette

2. U. A. Fanthorpe 'Rising Damp' Steve

3. R. S. Thomas 'The Bright Field' Hannah

4. Seamus Heaney 'Postscript' Juliette

5. Cecil Day-Lewis 'Walking Away' Steve