R. S. Thomas: "The Bright Field"

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 burning bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.



 
"The Bright Field" by R. S. Thomas, from Laboratories of the Spirit. © Macmillan, 1975.  

Art credit: Untitled image by unknown photographer.