Saturday, June 18, 2022

Dragon laced Screen - Llananno Church poem

A perfect Welsh landscape


Today I came across, in a blog,  a reference to a church up in Jennie's neck of the woods.  The person who had been there was Patrick Laurie (Bog, Myrtle & Peat) from Galloway in Scotland. The church is St.Annos in Llananno.  Jennie has written about it here in Codlins&cream with some very good photos of the screen by the way.

Laurie had mentioned a poem by R.S,  Thomas, so I hunted it out, curiosity never did kill the cat, it is only a myth!  Thomas's sombre tone has been replaced by a more reflective one.  I love the way history tumbles down through time.  Churches reflect the living and the dead, isolated churches in Wales reminders that once upon a time religion was a strong motivating fact.  I shall probably never visit this church but do I need to when the written word and pictures capture its essence?

Llananno by R.S.Thomas

I often call there.
There are no poems in it
for me. But as a gesture
of independence of the speeding
traffic I am a part
of, I stop the car,
turn down the narrow path
to the river and enter
the church with its clear reflection
beside it.

There are few services
now; the screen has nothing
to hide. Face to face
with no intermediary
between me and God, and only the water’s
quiet insistence on a time
older than man, I keep my eyes
open and am not dazzled,
so delicately does the light enter
my soul from the serene presence
that waits for me till I come next.

I trust that the two sources I have used will forgive me, but when we put pen to paper, or finger to key, it is because we want to share our experiences.  That is what blogging is all about.
Also there is a third source which I should have remembered......

8 comments:

  1. RS Thomas - a man after my own heart Thelma. I had forgotten this poem - thanks for the reminder.

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  2. I found a nice picture of the church on the geograph website. See:-
    https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/7169413

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    1. Thank you for that, I see I can use it, what a beautiful photo. The church's landscape is almost untouched.

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  3. Here be dragons indeed!! I didn't know of R S Thomas' poem about it, but he's right - we all drive past, unknowing, as it shelters in a tree-lined hollow below the road. It was top of my Lockdown List of places to visit as soon as we were able. No disappointment there either - that screen is just amazing. Hisdoryan has done a brilliant post on it. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a connection with Abbey Cwm-Hir, just up the road. What upsets me is it is one of the few REMAINING Radnorshire rood-screens - so think what we have lost to woodworm and wet rot as churches were abandoned - or incoming Victorian renovators had a very heavy-handed broom to sweep clean the past . . .

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    1. There has probably been a lot lost along the way, but some things do remain. Wish I had my Breverton monk book so I could look up St. Annos Jennie. You are so lucky to live in this part of the world where workmanship was so widely the norm.

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  4. That screen is a complete wonder. It's baffling, but thrilling, that such things still exist in such unlikely places.

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    1. It looks like a lifetime's work John, dedicated workmanship, as Jennie says must have had something to do with the nearby abbey.

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