I praise you because
you are artist and scientist
in one. When I am somewhat
fearful of your power,
your ability to work miracles
with a set-square, I hear
you murmuring to yourself
in a notation Beethoven
dreamed of but never achieved.
You run off your scales of
rain water and sea water, play
the chords of the morning
and evening light, sculpture
with shadow, join together leaf
by leaf, when spring
comes, the stanzas of
an immense poem. You speak
all languages and none,
answering our most complex
prayers with the simplicity
of a flower, confronting
us, when we would domesticate you
to our uses, with the rioting
viruses under our lens.
(R S Thomas)
More Poetry from R S Thomas:
R S Thomas Poems based on Topics: Light, R. S. Thomas Poems about Literature, R. S. Thomas Poems about Flowers, R. S. Thomas Poems about Poetry, Water, Morning, Simplicity, Power- Thirteen Blackbirds Looking at a Man (R S Thomas Poems)
- A Welsh Testament (R S Thomas Poems)
- Welsh Landscape (R S Thomas Poems)
- Welsh History (R S Thomas Poems)
- The Face (R S Thomas Poems)
- A Peasant (R S Thomas Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Light Poems, Flowers Poems, Morning Poems, Power Poems, Water Poems, Literature Poems, Poetry Poems, Simplicity PoemsBased on Keywords: rioting, scientist, notation, viruses, domesticate, set-square
- To Sir Walter Scott (Thomas Pringle Poems)
- Epitaph: Being Part Of An Inscription For A Monument (James Beattie Poems)
- Against the Dispraisers of Poetry (Richard Barnfield Poems)
- Whittier (Paul Laurence Dunbar Poems)
- Sonnet. Written On A Blank Space At The End Of Chaucer's Tale Of 'The Floure And The Lefe' (John Keats Poems)