LONG  KNEELING

Poem for Today - Friday -  June 13, 2014

IN A COUNTRY CHURCH

To one kneeling down no word came,
Only the wind’s song, saddening the lips

Of the grave saints, rigid in glass;

Or the dry whisper of unseen winds,

Bats not angels, in  the high roof.

Was he balked by silence? He kneeled long,

And saw love in a dark crown

Of thorns blazing, and a winter tree

Golden with fruit of a man’s body.

© R. S. Thomas
Painting on top:
Christmas Prayers
by Henry Bacon