Blog Post

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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