tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post2193672867969307794..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: R. S. Thomas: The MoorUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-72420443739534668072015-09-25T18:52:14.626-07:002015-09-25T18:52:14.626-07:00The Welsh Moorland images are a wonderful accompli...The Welsh Moorland images are a wonderful accompliment to the words of R. S. Thomas who must have known this area on a very personal level.Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11900844435393390808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-6032509932165416142012-06-18T09:13:46.062-07:002012-06-18T09:13:46.062-07:00In the 1960s one of the poets I enjoyed reading wa...In the 1960s one of the poets I enjoyed reading was Thomas Clark, Tom! Back when I frequented the 8th St., the Phoenix, and St. Mark's Place bookshops. The Robert Graves interview in Paris Review dramatically turned my autodidact's attention toward much of the English language canon I'd forsaken, but I've been a slow and intermittent reader. Tom Disch's critical books spread new nets but mostly forward. Web serendipity, to which I came late, has opened channels new and old via Bristol poets Marland, John Terry, and Deborah Harvey, and Irishman James Harpur. Back to RST, reading in Ted Hughes' intro to Keith Douglas in Winter Pollen what a rare company he felt those two belonged in, with Thomas Wyatt!larry whitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05659637420532771765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-8251221091060410372012-06-17T15:34:12.818-07:002012-06-17T15:34:12.818-07:00Larry, I picked up a taste for Thomas's poems ...Larry, I picked up a taste for Thomas's poems when living in the UK in the 1960s -- he seemed from then on a rare pure source in that area of the meditative lyric in which English language poetry has for so long excelled but which it has increasingly abandoned what with the latterday embrace of data, deconstruction, dumbness and other deleteriously invasive imports. The general collapse may have begun with transatlantic flight, or was it the Chunnel, or the Web.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-88341310576711760122012-06-17T10:59:05.000-07:002012-06-17T10:59:05.000-07:00All these wondrous photos didn't show up for m...All these wondrous photos didn't show up for me until today. I have not yet read Thomas's bio or autobiographies but his poems are each as beautiful as the scenes and in some of the same ways. The lush green and forested ones surprised me as most I've seen leave me in awe of the sheep and the shepherds RST celebrated and elegized, true survivalists (like him). I'm indebted to Welsh-bred Bristol artist-poet-blogger Dru Marland (fitting name) for introducing me to Thomas's life and work.<br /> http://dru-withoutamap.blogspot.com/larry whitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05659637420532771765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-18981161688025900862012-06-16T05:16:12.982-07:002012-06-16T05:16:12.982-07:00Sefyll ar y bwlch -- definitely the place to be.Sefyll ar y bwlch -- definitely the place to be.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-11554684015499356162012-06-16T03:04:05.143-07:002012-06-16T03:04:05.143-07:00I realize I'm late to this party and to knowle...I realize I'm late to this party and to knowledge of R. S. Thomas, whose life I've just been reading about. Regarding this post, it's funny the way the only thing that breaks the silence are Thomas's words. What a beautiful poem. Unique. I visited at a good moment because yesterday was filled with far too many noisy, mostly dishonest words and I woke up still hearing them. Steve's last two poems have been wonderful to read also. CurtisACravanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00315707533118640284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-68103698218624040592012-06-16T00:14:11.024-07:002012-06-16T00:14:11.024-07:00I like to think that blotch of red in the last pic...I like to think that blotch of red in the last picture is a Judas tree, a supposition highly unlikely, given its geographical distribution.vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14515165428574974933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-79139897116421794202012-06-15T14:45:47.229-07:002012-06-15T14:45:47.229-07:00i believe i once found a similiar spirituality in ...i believe i once found a similiar spirituality in your home where somehow even the sielnces took on their own language...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06096701167441653059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-8638809007117994532012-06-15T10:28:05.053-07:002012-06-15T10:28:05.053-07:00Sacred open spaces with much activity in the grass...Sacred open spaces with much activity in the grasses, water, sparse trees and sky. Even the rocks have their certain personalities and speak, saying much while appearing so still. I like the red lipstick of the tree (last photo). "...I walked on," how could one? I am just possibly beginning to understand (everything) here in the Desert of w's, of y's.Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-48695647550146795382012-06-15T09:29:51.452-07:002012-06-15T09:29:51.452-07:00Steve, hope all goes well there with Oona and all ...Steve, hope all goes well there with Oona and all is well with you as well -- Greenpoint, that's really <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Greenpoint_Waterfront.JPG" rel="nofollow">changing the channels</a>!TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-65915551519844645302012-06-15T09:04:36.000-07:002012-06-15T09:04:36.000-07:00Tom,
Lovely photos, through which "I walked ...Tom,<br /><br />Lovely photos, through which "I walked on,<br />. . . while the air crumbled" -- in my imagination at least, being here in Greenpoint visiting Oona (soon to have a baby), somewhere between those coastal hills of Bolinas ('pictured' here in yesterday's poem) and the "tussocks of rough grass" of Ceredigion. <br /><br />6.14<br /><br />light coming into sky above still black <br />ridge, white curve of moon above branch<br />in foreground, wave sounding in channel<br /><br /> rare self portrait of a man,<br /> flat side of building<br /><br /> changed, the sleeping woman,<br /> bird in minute detail<br /><br />first silver of sun rising above ridge,<br />shadowed green pine on tip of sandspitSTEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-67930063639973198922012-06-15T07:14:36.742-07:002012-06-15T07:14:36.742-07:00"‘Sensation is the greatest mystery of natura..."‘Sensation is the greatest mystery of natural science.’"<br /><br />"R. S. Thomas doesn't pull the scene to himself with imperious fingers. It all comes as grace."<br /><br />"espacios maravillosos...imposible no sentirse invadido de fuertes emociones..."<br /><br />Texts for a quiet spring sermon upon the holy minimalism of vacancy. The less there is of everything, the more there is of Everything.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-13634080303185994942012-06-15T06:34:03.658-07:002012-06-15T06:34:03.658-07:00espacios maravillosos...imposible no sentirse inva...espacios maravillosos...imposible no sentirse invadido de fuertes emociones...<br />wonderful metaphor:<br /><br />Simple and poor, while the air crumbled<br />And broke on me generously as bread.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-79996235818088426102012-06-15T06:27:54.441-07:002012-06-15T06:27:54.441-07:00The intense, amplified blue of the water catches t...The intense, amplified blue of the water catches the eye in that photo of Car Caron. Gorgeous photos, all of them, and Thomas’ words too. Being there. What a beautiful place Earth is. Wilhelm Reich said, ‘Sensation is the greatest mystery of natural science.’Hazenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13417573435195561519noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-34529237487194490452012-06-15T06:26:38.474-07:002012-06-15T06:26:38.474-07:00The moorlands pictured in this post (or others sim...The moorlands pictured in this post (or others similar) would have been the prominent landscape features of the countryside about the parsonage Thomas occupied, and from which he embarked on his walks, in the period when he was writing the poems (like this one) collected in Pièta, 1966 <br /><br />Some interesting further glimpses: <br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8v-uc-DI7g" rel="nofollow">R. S. Thomas, 1995</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TaedssoNfE&feature=related" rel="nofollow">R. S. Thomas: The Bright Field (read by Nicola Davies)</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-61693233874415747032012-06-15T06:19:11.033-07:002012-06-15T06:19:11.033-07:00I was reading this poem and looking at those pictu...I was reading this poem and looking at those pictures and lost all sense of place.<br /><br />The beauty here is stripped of all sentiment; it's the wind that brings tears to the eyes.<br /><br />"the mind's cession of it's kingdom"<br />R. S. Thomas doesn't pull the scene to himself with imperious fingers. It all comes as grace.<br /><br />I'm moved and wholly thrown.Mose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.com