Minus four... The Bright Field

This beautiful poem sets  the theme for Greenbelt and also much of my forthcoming sabbatical:

The Bright Field

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 realise 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.

RS Thomas

One of the gifts that I have been preparing to receive in the coming weeks is that of time:

Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. I