Threshold
By R. S. Thomas
I emerge from the mind’s
cave into the worse darkness
outside, where things pass and
the Lord is in none of them.
I have heard the still, small voice
and it was that of the bacteria
demolishing my cosmos. I
have lingered too long on
this threshold, but where can I go?
To look back is to lose the soul
I was leading upwards towards
the light. To look forward? Ah,
what balance is needed at
the edges of such an abyss.
I am alone on the surface
of a turning planet. What
to do but, like Michelangelo’s
Adam, put my hand
out into unknown space,
hoping for the reciprocating touch?
R. S. Thomas, “Threshold” from The Poems of R. S. Thomas. Copyright © by Kunjana Thomas 2001. Reprinted by permission of University of Arizona Press.
Source:
The Poems of R. S. Thomas
(1985)
