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I have known exile and a wild passion
Of longing changing to a cold ache.
King, beggar and fool, I have been all by turns,
Knowing the body’s sweetness, the mind’s treason;
Taliesin still, I show you a new world, risen,
Stubborn with beauty, out of the heart’s need.

— R. S. Thomas Song at the Year's Turning (1955)

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More quotes by R. S. Thomas

Art is recuperation
from time. I lie back
convalescing upon the prospect
of a harvest already at hand.

Between Here and Now (1981)

You have to imagine
a waiting that is not impatient
because it is timeless.

The deep spaces between stars,
Fathomless as the cold shadow
His mind cast.

The Bread of Truth (1963)

The darkness
is the deepening shadow
of your presence; the silence a
process in the metabolism
of the being of love.

Laboratories of the Spirit (1975)

It is alive. It is you,
God. Looking out I can see
no death.

Laboratories of the Spirit (1975)

All R. S. Thomas quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: R. S. Thomas (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.