The Untamed

By R. S. Thomas

My garden is the wild

Sea of the grass. Her garden

Shelters between walls.

The tide could break in;

I should be sorry for this.

There is peace there of a kind,

Though not the deep peace

Of wild places. Her care

For green life has enabled

The weak things to grow.

Despite my first love,

I take sometimes her hand,

Following straight paths

Between flowers, the nostril

Clogged with their thick scent.

The old softness of lawns

Persuading the slow foot

Leads to defection; the silence

Holds with its gloved hand

The wild hawk of the mind.

But not for long, windows,

Opening in the trees

Call the mind back

To its true eyrie; I stoop

Here only in play.

Copyright Credit: R. S. Thomas, “The Untamed” from The Poems of R. S. Thomas. Copyright © 2001 by Kunjana Jaikin. Reprinted by permission of Kunjana Jaikin.

Source: The Poems of R. S. Thomas (1985)