Tell Us
by R. S. Thomas
Feast of SS Alexander, John, and Paul the New, Patriarchs of Constantinople
Anno Domini 2020, August 30
We have had names for you:
The Thunderer, the Almighty
Hunter, Lord of the snowflake
and the sabre-toothed tiger.
One name we have held back
unable to reconcile it
with the mosquito, the tidal-wave,
the black hole into which
time will fall. You have answered
us with the image of yourself
on a hewn tree, suffering
injustice, pardoning it;
pointing as though in either
direction; horrifying us
with the possibility of dislocation.
Ah, love, with your arms
wide, tell us how much more
they must still be stretched
to embrace a universe drawing
away from us at the speed of light.
*R. S. Thomas, Collected Later Poems: 1988-2000
(Tarset, Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books Ltd, 2004), p. 170.
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