The pearl of great price

 

artist: George Henry

Here's a poem by R.S.Thomas:

 

The Bright Field

 

by R. S. Thomas

 

I have seen the sun break through

to illuminate a small field

for a while, and gone my way

and forgotten it. But that was the pearl

of great price, the one field that had

treasure in it. I realize now

that I must give all that I have

to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after

an imagined past. It is the turning

aside like Moses to the miracle

of the lit bush, to a brightness

that seemed as transitory as your youth

once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

 

Source: “The Bright Field” from Collected Poems 1945-1990, by R.S. Thomas