Head·word /ˈhedˌwɜː(ɹ)d/ n. @headword

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**Assoc for Scottish Literature** @scotlit@mastodon.scot · Mar 29

Assoc for Scottish Literature @scotlit@mastodon.scot

I hear your bold blackbird, that slow singer,
alone at my desk yet walking with you
through your valleys and hills, that shining
stream bubbling notes of your music
your pure Welsh music…

—Sheila Templeton, “For R.S. Thomas”
published in A Little Touch of Cliff in the Evening: New Writing Scotland 30

The Welsh poet Ronald Stuart Thomas (1913–2000) was born #OTD, 29 March.

Sheila Templeton
For R.S. Thomas

I hear your bold blackbird, that slow singer,
alone at my desk yet walking with you
through your valleys and hills, that shining
stream bubbling notes of your music
your pure Welsh music. And I am walking
behind my father, born in your time, but
seeded in his own north land, ploughing,
proud to stride behind his pair o horse;
high cheek-boned, hair rain-flattened
the colour of wet barley, speaking the secret
words to his beasts, turning his park
into a sea of order, yes, with your stiff clods
glinting in the wind, gulls and peesie-weeps
skirling encouragement; above him
only a dark yearning sky.
Another enduring ordinary man,
born to till and toil, to win his wars
to wrestle with his burning under those stars.

#Scottish #literature #poem

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Nov 3, 2024

Nov 3, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

‘The Reception’ - #RSThomas
(Laboratories of the Spirit, Macmillan)
#Bardd #Barddoniaeth #Cerdd
#Poet #Poetry #Poem

Text of poem -
THE RECEPTION.
The clouds were brown like the landscape. Sullen men worked there, fingering their scars. The brown got into their minds so that they could not see God. It concerned him at times. He arrayed himself in bright green, but the winds of that place burned him; he was a ghost unnoticed, a body nailed to a dead tree. When he came down no one rejoiced; he was as dry leaves blowing, flimsy integument of the hard soil. He withdrew to consider, rejuvenating himself at the mind's sources. White, he thought; I will visit this people as a white bird, my feathers their winter. They perceived him then; fell upon him in silence, seeking for the brown soil he deprived them of, trampling him into it.

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Oct 31, 2024

Oct 31, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

‘Hallowe’en’ - #RSThomas
(No Truce with the Furies, @BloodaxeBooks)
#NosCalanGaeaf #Halloween
#Bardd #Barddoniaeth #Cerdd
#Poet #Poetry #Poem

Text of poem -
Hallowe'en.
Outside a surfeit of planes. Inside the hunger of the departed to come back. 'Ah, erstwhile humans, would you make your mistakes over again? In life, as in love, the second time round is no better.' I confront their expressions in the embers, on grey walls: faces among the stones watching me to see if this night of all nights I will make sacrifice to the spirits of hearth and of roof-tree, pouring a libation. 'Stay where you are,' I implore. 'This is no world for escaped beings to make their way back into. The well that you took your pails to is polluted. At the centre of the mind's labyrinth the machine howls for the sacrifice of the affections; vocabulary has on a soft collar but the tamed words are not to be trusted. As long as the flames hum, making their honey, better to look in upon truth's comb than to take off as we do on fixed wings for depollinated horizons.'

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Oct 30, 2024

Oct 30, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

‘Welsh Summer’ - #RSThomas
(Laboratories of the Spirit, Macmillan)
#Bardd #Barddoniaeth #Cerdd
#Poet #Poetry #Poem

Text of poem -
WELSH SUMMER.
They blow on their horns; the valleys are full of echoes; voices from vanished kingdoms answer them from their recesses in time. Here there is no sleep for the dead; they are resurrected to mourn. Everywhere is the sad chorus of an old people, waking to weep. It is the machine wins; the land suffers the formication of its presence. Places that would have preferred peace have had their bowels opened; our children paddle thoughtlessly there in the mess.

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Oct 16, 2024

Oct 16, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

‘He has the vote’ - #RSThomas
(What is a Welshman? - Christopher Davies Publishers, Llandybie)
#Bardd #Barddoniaeth #Cerdd
#Poet #Poetry #Poem

Text of poem -
He has the vote.
and a stupendous future awaits this little— VOTE TORY-this little nation of . ... What does crachach mean? (Every drop of water is worth its weight in tears, but they are running out now like the variations on the cynghanedd.) VOTE LABOUR and protect your class. There is an aristocracy of the pit, too. VOTE LIBERAL and allow England to enjoy your prospects. VOTE PLAID, mun and be damned for your own sake.

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Sep 11, 2024

Sep 11, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

Here’s a lovely account of an encounter with #RSThomas… https://grevel.co.uk/poetry/an-afternoon-with-r-s-thomas/

Grevel Lindop · Mar 3, 2010An Afternoon with R.S. Thomas - Grevel LindopI visited the Welsh poet R.S. Thomas in 1997. The visit turned out very differently from what I had expected, and I wrote an account soon afterwards. Here it is again for those who missed it when it appeared in the magazine PN Review. * August 1997 was an exceptionally hot month, and on one […]

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Sep 4, 2024

Sep 4, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

Just a reminder … there will be a RS Thomas Literary Festival & Poetry Workshop in Eglwysfach, September 20th-22nd 2024. See full details in the attached bilingual document.
#RSThomas #Eglwysfach

Flyer giving festival details - too long to fit here.

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Aug 14, 2024

Aug 14, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

‘Remedies’ - #RSThomas
(H'm, Macmillan)
#Rhwymediau #Remedies
#Bardd #Barddoniaeth #Cerdd
#Poet #Poetry #Poem

Text of poem -
REMEDIES.
There were people around; I would have spoken with them. But the situation had got beyond Language. Machines were invented To cope, but they also were limited By our expectations. Men stared With a sort of growing resentment At life that was ubiquitous and Unseizable. A sense of betrayal At finding themselves alive at all Maddened the young; the older, Following the narrowing perspectives Of art, squinted at where a god died. Between fierce alternatives There was need as always of a third Way. History was the proliferation Of the offerers of such. Fortunes were made On the ability to disappoint.

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Aug 11, 2024

Aug 11, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

‘Ruins’ - #RSThomas
(H'm, Macmillan)
#Adfeilion #Ruins
#Bardd #Barddoniaeth #Cerdd
#Poet #Poetry #Poem

Text of poem -
RUINS.
And this was a civilisation That came to nothing - he spurned with his toe The slave-coloured dust. We breathed it in Thankfully, oxygen to our culture. Somebody found a curved bone In the ruins. A king's probably, He said. Impertinent courtiers We eyed it, the dropped kerchief of time.

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Jun 20, 2024

Jun 20, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

‘Ah!’ - #RSThomas
(Pietà, Rupert Hart-Davis)
#bardd #barddoniaeth #cerdd
#poet #poetry #poem

Text of poem -
AH!
There's no getting round it, It's a hell of a thing, he said, and looked grave To prove it. What he said was The truth. I would make different Provision; for such flesh arrange Exits down less fiery paths. But the God We worship fashions the world From such torment, and every creature Decorates it with its tribute of blood.

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Apr 19, 2024

Apr 19, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

We are sad to inform you that although Taylor Swift’s eagerly awaited new album mentions Dylan Thomas, she somehow forgot to mention #RSThomas . Maybe next time?

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Apr 17, 2024

Apr 17, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

‘The Survivor’ 1961 - #RSThomas
(Tares, Rupert Hart-Davis)
#Goroeswr #Survivor
#bardd #barddoniaeth #cerdd
#poet #poetry #poem

Text of first part of poem -
THE SURVIVOR.
Yesterday I found one left: Eighty-five, too old for mischief. What strange grace lends him a brief Time for repenting of his theft Of health and comeliness from her Who lay caught in his strong arms Night by night and heard the farm's Noises, the beasts' moan and stir? The land's thug: seventeen stone, Settling down in a warm corner a By a wood fire's lazy purr; A slumped bundle of fat and bone, Bragging endlessly of his feats Of strength and skill with the long scythe, Or gallantry among the blithe Serving women, all on heat For him, of course. My mind went back Sombrely to that rough parish, Lovely as the eye could wish In its green clothes, but beaten black And blue by the deeds of dour men Too like him, warped inside And given to watching, sullen-eyed, Love still-born, as it was then.

Text of second part of poem -
Wake him up. It is too late Now for the blood's foolish dreaming. The veins clog and the body's spring Is long past; pride and hate Are the strong's fodder and the young. Old and weak, he must chew now The cud of prayer and be taught how From hard hearts huge tears are wrung.

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Apr 14, 2024

Apr 14, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

‘Earth’ - #RSThomas
(Tares, Rupert Hart-Davis)
#Daear #Earth
#bardd #barddoniaeth #cerdd
#poet #poetry #poem

Text of poem -
EARTH.
I have looked it in the face. I have seen land emptied of Godhead, The wind blowing cold and the rain falling; Men going forth on slow tractors To turn the earth with hate in their hearts, Leaving behind them the farm's drudge, Breeder of children who have said No! To the spirit's usual invitation. How am I better than all these, Who have only the will to believe God Bleeds in the soil, the unloved body Their wheels mangle? Sweeten that will With grace, life, lest I grow hard Like them but for the wrong reason.

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Mar 27, 2024

Mar 27, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

‘Dialectic’ - #RSThomas
(Tares, Rupert Hart-Davis)
#Dilechdid #Dialectic
#bardd #barddoniaeth #cerdd
#poet #poetry #poem

Text of poem -
DIALECTIC.
I would make a clear statement, I would say that God is More than the total of our spent prayers; That minds indentured only by silence Are a roof of what He is not. sure pro Which is what Davies was saying In his never to be published thesis, Committed to memory by single order a Of thrushes, vocal in the yew.

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Mar 20, 2024

Mar 20, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

‘Spring Equinox’ - #RSThomas
(The Stones of the Field, Druid Press)
#Cyhydnos #Equinox
#bardd #barddoniaeth #cerdd
#poet #poetry #poem

Text of poem -
Spring Equinox.
Do not say, referring to the sun, 'Its journey northward has begun,' As though it were a bird, annually migrating, That now returns to build in the rich trees Its nest of golden grass. Do not belie Its lusty health with words such as imply A pallid invalid recuperating. The age demands the facts, therefore be brief - Others will sense the simile and say: 'We are turning towards the sun's indifferent ray.'

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Mar 6, 2024

Mar 6, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

‘The Cry’ - #RSThomas
(Poetry for Supper, Rupert Hart-Davis)
#Cri #Cry
#bardd #barddoniaeth #cerdd
#poet #poetry #poem

Text of poem -
THE CRY.
Don't think it was all hate That grew there; love grew there, too, Climbing by small tendrils where The warmth fell from the eyes' blue Flame. Don't think even the dirt And the brute ugliness reigned Unchallenged. Among the fields Sometimes the spirit, enchained So long by the gross flesh, raised Suddenly there its wild note of praise.

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Mar 3, 2024

Mar 3, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

‘Phobia’ - #RSThomas
(Poetry for Supper, Rupert Hart-Davis)
#Ffobia #Phobia
#bardd #barddoniaeth #cerdd
#poet #poetry #poem

Text of poem -
PHOBIA.
This poor woman who was afraid, Afraid of the gestures the trees made In the wood at night or on the blind At home; afraid of the heart's sound, The intestinal rumour, the ripe swell Of muscles under the taut skin; Through long brooding conceived at last Peculiar sickness, nurtured it And reared it, till it was of age To practise incest with its mother. From such foul intercourse death came Bloodily forth. Take her cold hand, Spirit, and lead her gently away From the mind's darkness into the light, If not the comfort, of truth's flame.

**R S Thomas (poet)** @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales · Mar 1, 2024

Mar 1, 2024

R S Thomas (poet) @RSThomasPoet@toot.wales

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus i bawb!
Happy St David's Day to everyone!
“Gwnewch y pethau bychain - Do the little things”
‘Llanddewi Brefi’ - #RSThomas
(Uncollected Poems, #BloodaxeBooks) #DewiSant