Collected Poems 1945-1990
Page 28
‘to the places that are far off
from yourselves.’ And so they do
at a price that is the alloy in
the thought that we can do without them.
A Marriage
We met
under a shower
of bird-notes.
Fifty years passed,
love’s moment
in a world in
servitude to time.
She was young;
I kissed with my eyes
closed and opened
them on her wrinkles.
‘Come,’ said death,
choosing her as his
partner for
the last dance. And she,
who in life
had done everything
with a bird’s grace,
opened her bill now
for the shedding
of one sigh no
heavier than a feather.
Index of Titles
Abercuawg (i)
Abersoch (i)
Absence, The (i)
Absolution (i)
Acting (i)
AD 2000 (i)
Adder (i)
Adjustments (i)
Affinity (i)
Afforestation (i)
After Jericho (i)
Age (i)
Aim (i)
Airy Tomb, The (i)
Album (i)
Aleph (i)
Alive (i)
All Right (i)
Almost (i)
Alpine (i)
Amen (‘And God said ...’) (i)
Amen (‘It was all arranged’) (i)
Ancients of the World, The (i)
Andante (i)
Ann Griffith (i)
Anniversary (i)
Annunciation by Veneziano, The (i)
Answer, The (i)
Ap Huw’s Testament (i)
Apostrophe (i)
Approaches (i)
April Song (i)
Arrival (i)
Arriving (i)
Art History (i)
Aside (i)
Asides (i)
Asking (i)
Astronauts (i)
At It (i)
Aubade (i)
Balance (i)
Bank, The (i)
Barn Owl (i)
Because (i)
Becoming (i)
Belfry, The (i)
Bent (i)
Biography (i)
Blackbird Singing, A (i)
Blondes (i)
Boatman (i)
Border Blues (i)
Borders (i)
Boy’s Tale, The (i)
Bravo! (i)
Bread (i)
Bright Field, The (i)
Brother (i)
Burgos (i)
Bush, The (i)
Cadenza (i)
Calling (i)
Captain Cook’s Last Voyage (Roland Penrose) (i)
Careers (i)
Carol (i)
Cast, The (i)
Castaway (i)
Casualty, The (i)
Cat and the Sea, The (i)
Centuries (i)
Cézanne. The Card Players (i)
Chapel, The (i)
Chapel Deacon (i)
Children’s Song (i)
Child’s Brain (Giorgio di Chirico), The (i)
Christmas (i)
Circles (i)
Combat, The (i)
Coming (i)
Coming, The (i)
Concession (i)
Conductor, The (i)
Cones (i)
Cones, The (i)
Confrontation (i)
Contacts (i)
Conviction, The (i)
Correspondence (i)
Countering (i)
Country, A (‘At fifty he was still ...’) (i)
Country, A (‘It is nowhere’) (i)
Country, The (i)
Country Child (i)
Country Church (Manafon) (i)
Country Clergy, The (i)
Country Cures (i)
Court Order (i)
Covenant (i)
Covenanters (i)
Cures (i)
Cyclamen (i)
Cynddylan on a Tractor (i)
Dance, The (i)
Darks Well, The (i)
Dead Worthies (i)
Death of a Peasant (i)
Death of a Poet (i)
Degas. The Dancing Class (i)
Degas. Women Ironing (i)
Depopulation of the Hills (i)
Deprivation (i)
Destinations (i)
Dialectic (i)
Digest (i)
Directions (i)
Drawing by a Child (Diana Brinton Lee) (i)
Drowning (i)
Earth (i)
Earth Does its Best for Him, The (i)
Echoes (i)
Eheu! Fugaces (i)
Emerging (‘Not as in the old days ...’) (i)
Emerging (‘Well, I said ...’) (i)
Empty Church, The (i)
Epiphany (i)
Epitaph (i)
Epitaph, The (i)
Evacuee, The (i)
Evans (i)
Exchange (i)
Expatriates (i)
Experiments (i)
Fable (i)
Face, The (i)
Fair, The (i)
Fair Day (i)
Farm Child (i)
Farm Wife (i)
Father and Child (Ben Shahn) (i)
Female (i)
Ffynon Fair (St Mary’s Well) (i)
Figure, The (i)
Film of God, The (i)
Fisherman, The (i)
Fishing (i)
Flower, The (i)
Flowers (i)
Fly, The (i)
Folk Tale (i)
For Instance (i)
For the Record (i)
Forest Dwellers (i)
Formula (i)
Fuel (i)
Fugue for Ann Griffiths (i)
Funeral (i)
Gallery (i)
Game, The (i)
Gap, The (‘God woke ...’) (i)
Gap, The (‘The one thing ...’) (i)
Gap in the Hedge. The (i)
Garden, The (i)
Gauguin. Breton Village in the Snow (i)
Genealogy (i)
Gift (i)
Gifts (i)
God’s Story (i)
Gone (i)
Gone? (i)
Good (i)
Good Inn (Frits van den Berghe), The (i)
Gospel (i)
Gospel Truth (i)
Gradual (i)
Grandparents (i)
Grave Unvisited, A (i)
Green Categories (i)
Green Isle, The (i)
Groping (i)
Guernica (Pablo Picasso) (i)
Hafod Lom (i)
Hand, The (i)
Harbour (i)
Harvest End (from the Welsh of Caledfryn) (i)
He (i)
He Agrees with Henry Ford (i)
He and She (i)
He Lies Down to be Counted (i)
Hearth, The (i)
Hebrews 12.29 (i)
Henry James (i)
Here (i)
Hesitations (i)
Hill Christmas (i)
Hill Farmer Speaks, The (i)
Hireling (i)
His Condescensions Are Short-Lived (i)
History (‘In the morning ...’) (i)
History (‘It appears before us’) (i)
H’m (i)
Hyddgen (i)
I (i)
Iago Prytherch (‘Ah, Iago, my friend ...’) (i)
Iago Prytherch (‘Iago Prytherch, forgive ...’) (i)
If You Can Call it Living (i)
In a Country Church (i)
In Church (i)
In Context (i)
In Great Waters (i)
In Memoriam E. E. T. (i)
/> In Memory (i)
Incense (i)
Inside (i)
Interrogation, The (i)
Invasion on the Farm (i)
Invitation (i)
Island (i)
Island, The (i)
Islandmen (i)
It Hurts Him to Think (i)
Ivan Karamazov (i)
Jerusalem (i)
Jongkind. The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (i)
Judgment Day (i)
Kierkegaard (i)
Kingdom, The (i)
Kneeling (i)
Labourer, A (i)
Labourer, The (i)
Lament for Prytherch (i)
Land, A (i)
Last of the Peasantry, The (i)
Lecturer, A (i)
Life, A (i)
Line from St David’s, A (i)
Listener in the Corner, The (i)
Llananno (i)
Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant (i)
Look Out (i)
Looking at Sheep (i)
Looking Glass (i)
Lore (i)
Lost Christmas (i)
Loyalties (i)
Madam (i)
Maes-yr-Onnen (i)
Maker, The (i)
Making (i)
Man and Tree (i)
Manet. The Balcony (i)
Marged (i)
Marriage (i)
Marriage, A (i)
Measure for Measure (i)
Mediations (i)
Mediterranean (i)
Meet the Family (i)
Memories of Yeats whilst travelling to Holyhead (i)
Message, The (i)
Mill, The (i)
Minister, The (i)
Minuet (i)
Mistress, The (i)
Moment, The (i)
Monet. Portrait of Madame Gaudibert (i)
Montrose (i)
Moon in Lleyn, The (i)
Moor, The (i)
Moorland (i)
Mother and Child (i)
Mother and Son (i)
Movement (i)
Musician, The (i)
Nativity (i)
New Mariner, The (i)
Night Sky (i)
Ninetieth Birthday (i)
No (i)
No Answer (i)
No Through Road (i)
Nocturne by Ben Shahn (i)
Now (i)
Nuclear (i)
Observer, The (i)
Obstetrics (i)
Old Language, The (i)
Old Woman, An (i)
Omens (i)
On a Line in Sandburg (i)
On a Portrait of Joseph Hone by Augustus John (i)
On Hearing a Welshman Speak (i)
On the Farm (i)
On the Threshold of Liberty (René Magritte) (i)
Once (i)
One Way (i)
Oracle (Giorgio di Chirico), The (i)
Other (i)
Other, The (‘There are nights ...’) (i)
Other, The (‘They did it to me’) (i)
Out of the Hills (i)
Out There (i)
Pardon (i)
Parent (i)
Parish, The (i)
Passage (i)
Patriot, The (i)
Pavane (i)
Peasant, A (i)
Peasant Greeting (i)
Perhaps (i)
Period (i)
Perspectives (i)
Petition (i)
Pharisee (Twentieth Century) (i)
Phew! (i)
Pietà (i)
Pilgrimages (i)
Pisces (i)
Place, The (i)
Plas Difancoll (i)
Play (i)
Pluperfect (i)
Poacher, The (i)
Poet, A (i)
Poet’s Address to the Businessmen (i)
Poetry for Supper (i)
Porch, The (i)
Portrait (i)
Portrait of a Girl in a Yellow Dress (Henri Matisse) (i)
Portrait of Madame Renou (André Derain) (i)
Poste Restante (i)
Postscript (i)
Power (i)
Praise (i)
Prayer (i)
Prayer, The (i)
Pre-Cambrian (i)
Presence, The (i)
Present (i)
Priest, The (i)
Priest and Peasant (i)
Priest to His People, A (i)
Probing (i)
Problem, The (i)
Publicity Inc. (i)
Questions (i)
Red Model (René Magritte), The (i)
Relations (i)
Relay (i)
Remembering David Jones (i)
Reply (i)
Requiem (i)
Reservoirs (i)
Resolution (i)
Retirement (i)
Retrospect (i)
Return (i)
Return, The (i)
Revision (‘Heaven affords’) (i)
Revision (‘So the catechism begins’) (i)
Rhodri (i)
Rising of Glyndwr, The (i)
Ritual (i)
River, The (i)
Roger Bacon (i)
Roles (i)
Rose Cottage (i)
Rough (i)
Sailor Poet (i)
Sailors’ Hospital (i)
Salt (i)
Saraband (i)
Sarn Rhiw (i)
Saunders Lewis (i)
Schoonermen (i)
Sea. The (i)
Seaside (i)
Sea-watching (i)
Senior (i)
Servant (i)
Service (i)
Seventieth Birthday (i)
Shadows (i)
Siân (i)
Signpost, The (i)
Similarities (i)
Sir Gelli Meurig (Elizabethan) (i) (ii)
Small Country, The (i)
Small Window, The (i)
Smile, The (i)
Soliloquy (i)
Somewhere (i)
Somewhere to Go for a Laugh (i)
Son, The (i)
Sonata (i)
Song (i)
Song at the Year’s Turning (i)
Song for Gwydion (i)
Sorry (i)
Souillac: Le Sacrifice d’Abraham (i)
Spring Equinox (i)
Strands (i)
Strangers (i)
Study (i)
Suddenly (‘As I had always known’) (i)
Suddenly (‘Suddenly after long silence’) (i)
Survivors, The (i)
Swifts (i)
Synopsis (i)
Taste (i)
Tears (i)
Temptation of a Poet (i)
Tenancies (i)
Testimonies (i)
That (i)
Their Canvases Are (i)
There (i)
They (‘I take their hands’) (i)
They (‘The new explorers ...’) (i)
Thicket in Lleyn, A (i)
Thirteen Blackbirds Look at a Man (i)
This One (‘Oh, I know it ...’) (i)
This One (‘Sometimes a shadow ...’) (i)
This To Do (i)
Those Others (i)
Thus (i)
To a Young Poet (i)
To Pay for His Keep (i)
To the Farmer (i)
Too Late (i)
Tool, The (i)
Touching (i)
Toulouse Lautrec. Justine Dieuhl (i)
Traeth Maelgwn (i)
Tramp (i)
Travellers (i)
Travels (i)
Tree, The (i)
Tree (Owain Glyn Dŵr Speaks), The (i)
Truce, The (i)
Truly (i)
Truth (i)
Two (i)
Two Children Menaced by a Nightingale (Max Ernst) (i)
Unborn Daughter, The (i)
Unposted (i)
Untamed, The (i)
Unvanquis
hed, The (i)
Valediction (i)
Valley Dweller, The (i)
Van Gogh. Portrait of Dr Gachet (i)
Via Negativa (i)
View from the Window, The (i)
Village, The (i)
Visit, The (i)
Vocabulary (i)
Voices (i)
Waiting (‘Face to face? Ah, no’) (i)
Waiting (‘Here are mountains ...’) (i)
Waiting (‘Yeats said that ...’) (i)
Wallace Stevens (i)
Walter Llywarch (i)
Way of It, The (i)
Welcome (i)
Welcome to Wales (i)
Welsh (i)
Welsh Hill Country, The (i)
Welsh History (i)
Welsh Landscape (i)
Welsh Testament, A (i)
Welshman at St James’ Park, A (i)
Welshman to any Tourist, A (i)
West Coast (i)
Where? (i)
Which (i)
Which? (i)
White Tiger, The (i)
Who? (i)
Window, The (i)
Within Sound of the Sea (i)
Woman, The (i)
Woman Combing (Degas) (i)
Wood, The (i)
Word, The (i)
Young and Old (i)
Ystrad Fflur (Strada Florida)
Zero (i)
Index of First Lines
A brute and (i)
A city – its name (i)
a harbour with the (i)
A knock at the door (i)
A life’s trivia: commit them (i)
A little aside from the main road (i)
A little man (i)
A man threw some brushings away (i)
A maze, he said (i)
A memory of Kreisler once (i)
A message from God (i)
A pen appeared, and the god said (i)
A simple man (i)
A thousand years went by (i)
A voice out of the land (i)
A wood (i)
Abercuawg! Where is it? (i)
About living in the country? (i)
About mountains it is useless to argue (i)
Ah, Iago, my friend, whom the ignorant people thought (i)
Ah, you should see Cynddylan on a tractor (i)
All along the border the winds blow (i)
All in vain. I will cease now (i)
All my life I tried to believe (i)
All of them, Mummy and Daddy (i)
All right, I was Welsh. Does it matter? (i)
All this beauty (i)
Always the same hills (i)
An agreement between (i)
An ordinary lot (i)
And as he speaks time turns (i)
And at Carcassonne I was looking (i)
And beyond the window Denmark (i)
And courage shall give way (i)
And for the soul (i)
And God held in his hand (i)
And God said: How do you know? (i)
And God said, I will build a church here (i)
And God thought: Pray away (i)
And having built it (i)
And he dared them (i)
And he grasps him by the hair (i)
And I standing in the shade (i)
And if you ask her (i)
And in the book I read (i)
And in the midst of the council (i)
And in Tregaron Henry Richard (i)
And neither of them has said (i)
and one said (i)
And one said, This man can sing (i)
And one voice says: come (i)
And Prytherch – was he a real man (i)