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  Thomas's sombre tone has been replaced by a more reflective one.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......