Prayer

With Columba being the patron saint of poets,
it seems fitting that I became re-acquainted with a wonderful
contemporary Welsh poet,
and Anglican priest,
RS Thomas,
before I travelled.

His poems were the perfect companions
for my walks along the beach
and I'll be sharing several of my favorites
with more images from the island.

It is alive. It is you,

God. Looking out I can see

no death. The earth moves, the

sea moves, the wind goes

on its exuberant

journeys. Many creatures

reflect you, the flowers

your color, the tides the precision

of your calculations. There

is nothing too ample

for you to overflow, nothing

so small that your workmanship

is not revealed.

But the silence in the mind

is when we live best, within

listening distance of the silence

we call God. This is the deep

calling to deep of the psalm-

writer, the bottomless ocean.

We launch the armada of our thoughts on, never arriving.

It is a presence, then,

whose margins are our margins;

that calls us out over our

own fathoms. What to do

but draw a little nearer to 

such ubiquity by remaining still?

R.S. Thomas