This week’s choice is “The Bright Field” by R.S. Thomas. It reminds us that epiphanies come at random and not through seeking.

But that was the
pearl of great price, the one field that had
the treasure in it.
R.S. Thomas (1913—2000)

Poem 224. The Bright Field

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
the 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.

In this poem, Thomas likens sunshine momentarily illuminating a field to a moment of epiphany. Do we experience life by dwelling on some fictitious golden age of yore or by endlessly seeking our desires in the ever-changing future? Not according to Thomas—we must understand that a single moment as ephemeral as a mayfly may lead to our enlightenment, and it is these moments we should grasp and absorb.

I like this poem because it is beautiful and it makes me think about life and how we experience it.

The Pearl of Great Price

Poem 224. The Bright Field

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