'Soil' (poem) written by R S Thomas

This poem comes from his anthology 'An Acre of Land,' published by Montgomeryshire Printing Co


A field with tall hedges and a young

Moon in the branches and one star

Declining westward set the scene

Where he works slowly astride the rows 

Of red mangolds and green swedes

Plying mechanically his cold blade.


This is his world, the hedge defines

The mind's limits; only the sky

Is boundless, and he never looks up;

His gaze is deep in the dark soil,

As are his feet. The soil is all;

His hands fondle it, and his bones

Are formed out of it with the swedes.

And if sometimes the knife errs,

Burying itself in his shocked flesh,

Then out of the wound the blood seeps home

To the warm soil from which it came.

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