Welsh Pilgrimage

At University I wrote a paper about Welsh poet R.S. Thomas. He always seemed to be one of those angry old men, a man with a mind of his own, and with little, visible, sense of humour. But if you Google for pictures of him the first few you get are ones of him smiling, and people who knew him well have described him as "warm and humorous". He lived and worked as a priest in Wales, and in some ways had a tough life. He was a man of strong convictions. His poetry is fascinating, a mixture of the lyric and the down to earth, a celebration of natural beauty and a representation of the darkness of everyday life in the Welsh countryside. He wrote some of the most beautiful poems I know, and some keep coming back into my head over and over again.

A few years ago I visited Wales, quite some time after writing the paper, and, even though I still read Thomas and have some of his poems in my mind at odd moments, I didn't initially make the connection about visiting his homeland. Then, at one of my first stops, I met an American priest out on a journey to take pictures of the places related to Thomas. He told me that the church Thomas worked in from 1954 to 1967 was just down the road from the Bed & Breakfast we were staying in. The next morning, on my way to my next destination, I made a short detour to see the church, St Michael's at Eglwysfach. It was a small church right by the roadside, not a very quiet place. It was raining when I was there, and it didn't feel very cheerful. It did suit the man and his work somehow.



From then on the trip became partly about R.S. Thomas though. I moved on to Snowdonia, and from there to Angelsey. I camped at a site near Aberdaron, where Thomas was the vicar from 1967 to 1978, when he retired. He preached at the local church, St Hywyn.



He also preached at a small church two miles down the road, St Maelrhys' Church at Llanfaelrhys. This is a small church built in the middle of nowhere, where Thomas came for quiet meditation too. He found inspiration for one of his most beautiful poems here, he wrote "The View From the Window". Standing inside that church I knew why he would come here.



THE VIEW FROM THE WINDOW

Like a painting it is set before one,
But less brittle, ageless; these colours
Are renewed daily with variations
Of light and distance that no painter
Achieves or suggests. Then there is movement,
Change, as slowly the cloud bruises
Are healed by sunlight, or snow caps
A black mood; but gold at evening
To cheer the heart. All through history
The great brush has not rested,
Nor the paint dried; yet what eye,
Looking coolly, or, as we now,
Through the tears' lenses, ever saw
This work and it was not finished?



Thomas was a birdwatcher too, and he spent a lot of time at the bird observation centre on Bardsey Island. just a short boatride from Aberdaron. Visiting there was a real pleasure too, both because of the birds and because of Thomas. It's the kind of island where I wouldn't mind spending some time, even though it is very small. What I didn't know at the time, but have learned since, is that it is a breeding ground for Manx Shearwaters, who have their burrows in the hills on the island. Sometimes everything just comes together.