RS Thomas’s white washed cottage
the white washed words
that slipped a finger pointing out
how god could have written it
but passed the understanding
to the wind’s night
to the tree’s cold root-stone
when the silence spoke
his pen whistled
now and then a word spun
and he smiled a frown
and wrote it down
for us in black on white
leaving the gate swinging
haughty
a quiver
above the river a spider
torn between the corn
and the flow
a fine strand of a sun web
catches a dream’s meandering
on the hillside a castle
out at sea a boat
now where was i
about to cast this stone
into the thread of thought
aught i be naughty
just saying
the king and queen arrive at royal ascot
the king’s grandson starts at eton
just saying
my late father left school at fourteen
an intelligent man left uneducated
just saying
my ancestors fought for this land
then i’ll fight you for it
he said
i’m just saying
which one
there dad ~ i told them
on reading a poem about james joyce
remember barley sugar
those sticks of platted sunshine
licked in a childhood’s passing
well this poem is
that stick of platted sunbeams
licked through the flickering leaves
of past smiles smeared my dear
by the sweet blear of tears
that read me
whirled cup
the world cup runneth over
surely oh my goodness and mediocrity
will bore me all the days of my strife
and i will dwell in the house of
oh my good lord not another match
forever
social mediocrity
when a post invites me
to do this or that
i never do
this or that
and that’s a fact
when a post does not
invite me to do
this or that
i always find i want to reply
with a poem
about this or that
a poem that was not a fact
but in reply
it was
they found a new whale graveyard
deep beneath the sea
unimaginably deep to you and me
the Diamantina fracture
don’t ya know
and lunching there are brittle stars
and bone-boring worms
and chemosynthesis-based bivalves
so now ya know ya know
that the graveyard round the corner
just up the road from you and me
is pretty mundane monumentally
plain dead dull you see
but ya know that don’t ya
know why
because they found a new whale graveyard
deep beneath the sea
i have a sinking feeling
that it’s not for you and me
and that’s a pity
p
i
t
y
