The Country Clergy
by R. S. Thomas
Feast of Protomartyr and Equal of the Apostles Thekla
Anno Domini 2020, September 24
I see them working in old rectories
By the sun’s light, by candlelight,
Venerable men, their black cloth
A little dusty, a little green
With holy mildew. And yet their skulls,
Ripening over so many prayers,
Toppled into the same grave
With oafs and yokels. They left no books,
Memorial to their lonely thought
In grey parishes; rather they wrote
On men’s hearts and in the minds
Of young children sublime words
Too soon forgotten. God in his time
Or out of time will correct this.
*From R. S. Thomas, Collected Poems 1945-1990 (London: Phoenix, 1993), p. 82.
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