Vincent van Gogh
Starry Night Over The Rhone 1888
What they are saying is
that there is life there, too;
that the universe is the size it is
to enable us to catch up.
They have gone on from the human;
that shining is a reflection
of their intelligence. Godhead
is the colonisation by mind
of untenanted space. It i its own
light, a statement beyond language
of conceptual truth. Every night
is a rinsing myself of the darkness
that is in my veins. I let the stars inject me
with fire, silent as it is far,
but certain in its cauterising
of my despair. I am a slow
traveller, but there is more than time
to arrive. resting in the intervals
of my breathing, I pick up the signals
relayed to me from a periphery I comprehend.
R.S. Thomas
1913-2000
R.S. Thomas was a fervent Welsh nationalist and defender of the Welsh language, despite writing all of his poetry in English. Of his poetry, he once said: " "I don't write for the public. You make a poem for yourself firstly, and then, if other people want to join in, then there we are."
