Fieldnotes (I)
ekphrases on English walks
With lace of cow-parsley, elder, and may
he trims the meadow edges,
and lays out a patchwork, field upon field,
and stitches it up with hedges.
The cloth of summer is green and light,
for light is the summer, and green,
and see how it shines in the morning-time
and see how it shines in the e’en!
For all through the warp and all through the woof
he weaves the daisy-diamonds,
the poppies with scarlet embroidery thread,
and the golden dandelions.
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.
- R.S. Thomas
You had me at ‘lace of cow-parsley.’