On ‘The Bright Field’, by R S Thomas – A thought for the day by Jerry Carr-Brion

Thought for the day 11th August 2024

Today I’d like to read the poem ‘The Bright Field’, by R S Thomas, who was a Welsh Anglican clergyman and well-known 20th-century poet.

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

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.

Like any deep poem, this one is susceptible to multiple interpretations. To me, it is a message of hope in difficult times. The ‘pearl of great price’ is a quotation from the King James translation of the Gospel of Matthew (chapter 13, verses 45–46), where Jesus says:

‘Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.’

Thomas’s poem reminds us to grasp opportunities for spiritual growth or helping others while we can, even if they do not fit in with our other plans for the future. It is only by our actions that the world becomes a better place. If we are lucky enough to glimpse the ‘bright field’, let us not hurry on our way.