{"id":6038,"date":"2018-03-16T07:37:59","date_gmt":"2018-03-16T14:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=6038"},"modified":"2018-03-16T07:37:59","modified_gmt":"2018-03-16T14:37:59","slug":"r-s-thomas-the-moor-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/16\/r-s-thomas-the-moor-3\/","title":{"rendered":"R. S. Thomas – The Moor"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Moor
\nby R. S. Thomas<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

It was like a church to me.
\nI entered it on soft foot,
\nBreath held like a cap in the hand.
\nIt was quiet.
\nWhat God was there made himself felt,
\nNot listened to, in clean colours
\nThat brought a moistening of the eye,
\nIn movement of the wind over grass.<\/p>\n

There were no prayers said. But stillness
\nOf the heart\u2019s passions \u2014 that was praise
\nEnough; and the mind\u2019s cession
\nOf its kingdom. I walked on,
\nSimple and poor, while the air crumbled
\nAnd broke on me generously as bread.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from For Lovers of God Everywhere: Poems of the Christian Mystics<\/a>, by Roger Housden<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by xelcise<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

It was like a church to me.<\/i><\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t this a wonderful way to step into the wild?<\/p>\n

I entered it on soft foot,
\nBreath held like a cap in the hand.<\/i><\/p>\n

The proper approach to the natural world, with reverence and receptivity.<\/p>\n

This is one of the great gifts of living nature, it can release us from our endless mental and social constructions. We receive the opportunity to witness the wider reality. The limitations of our thoughts, our lives, the ambitions of the human world, are revealed amidst the larger landscape.<\/p>\n

It was quiet.
\nWhat God was there made himself felt,
\nNot listened to\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Nature offers us a direct experience of communion. These are not sermons or discourses that pass through the ear to be sifted and sorted by the brain before, hopefully, some truth trickles into the deeper awareness. This is the living stillness touching the heart.<\/p>\n

There were no prayers said. But stillness
\nOf the heart\u2019s passions \u2014 that was praise
\nEnough; and the mind\u2019s cession
\nOf its kingdom.<\/i><\/p>\n

Notice the break in the first line of the verse above. \u201cThere were no prayers said. But stillness\u2013\u201d By ending the line on \u201cstillness,\u201d the mind contemplating these words naturally halts, finding its own stillness. The mind unconsciously reads the line as if it was a complete sentence, \u201cThere were no prayers said, but stillness.\u201d Stillness, then, becomes the prayer.<\/p>\n

And the powerful line break dividing the second and third lines. We read them as, \u201cThat was praise!\u201d followed by \u201cEnough.\u201d On a certain level that isolated \u201cenough\u201d captures the essence here: He is speaking of the stillness of the heart\u2019s passions and the mind finally yielding its control. \u201cEnough!\u201d Enough of the busy mind and the hungry heart.<\/p>\n

The quiet breath of the natural world remind us that stillness is the real praise, and prayer, and presence.<\/p>\n

I walked on,
\nSimple and poor, while the air crumbled
\nAnd broke on me generously as bread.<\/i><\/p>\n

Mmm.<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: R. S. Thomas<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
For Lovers of God Everywhere: Poems of the Christian Mystics<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nSoul Food: Nourishing Poems for Starved Minds<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nR. S. Thomas: Selected Poems<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nR. S. Thomas (Everyman Poetry)<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nR. S. Thomas: Collected Poems 1945-1990<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
More Books >><\/a><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n
\n\"R.<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\nR. S. Thomas<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Wales (1913 \u2013 2000) Timeline<\/a>
\nChristian<\/a><\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

The son of a sailor, Thomas led an unsettled life in early childhood, moving with his family from port town to port town.<\/p>\n

As an adult, R. S. Thomas became an Anglican priest, serving rural Welsh farming communities.<\/p>\n

Thomas dabbled in poetry in school, but it wasn\u2019t until he met the painter Mildred E. Eldridge, the woman who would become his wife, that be began to take poetry seriously.<\/p>\n

More poetry by R. S. Thomas<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Moor by R. S. Thomas It was like a church to me. I entered it on soft foot, Breath held like a cap in the hand. It was quiet. What God was there made himself felt, Not listened to, in clean colours That brought a moistening of the eye, In movement of the wind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[79,2147,932],"class_list":["post-6038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-christian-poetry","tag-moor","tag-r-s-thomas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6039,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6038\/revisions\/6039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}