And though you probe and pry
With analytic eye,
And eavesdrop all our talk
With an amused look,
You cannot find the centre
Where we dance, where we play,
Where life is still asleep
Under the closed flower,
Under the smooth shell
Of eggs in the cupped nest
That mock the faded blue
Of your remoter heaven.

~ R. S. Thomas

It was after becoming an Anglican priest, that Ronald Stuart Thomas – the Welsh son of a sea captain – first began writing poetry. It is his religious poetry that he is best remembered for, although he also wrote poems about nature as well as Welsh history.   He liked spending time in the countryside and spent all of his time in the clergy working in rural areas.

Thomas was also considered an outspoken Welsh patriot and even wrote his 1985 autobiography, Nab (meaning “Nobody”), in Welsh. During his lifetime, Thomas was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and was nominated for a Nobel Prize.  In total, he produced twenty volumes of poetry.

The prolific poet once said of his work, “My chief aim is to make a poem . You make it for yourself firstly, and then if other people want to join in... then there we are."