The Darkness Between Stars

I have been itching to post one of these poems by R. S. Thomas for at least two weeks now, but i wanted to get the other stuff out of the way. So here I have finally satisfied my urge:

Via Negativa

Why no! I never thought other than
That God is that great absence
In our lives, the empty silence
Within, the place where we go
Seeking, not in hope to
Arrive or find. He keeps the interstices
In our knowledge, the darkness
Between stars. We are the echoes
We follow, the footprints he has just
Left. We put our hands in
His side hoping to find
It warm. We look at people
And places as though he had looked
At them too; but miss the reflection.


I wish I could post all of the ones I've been reading: The Gap, Apostrophe, The Answer, The Absence, Hebrews 12:39... They are all amazing. I have never had such a sense of the greatness and unfathomability of the idea of God. R.S. Thomas questions, fears, despairs, and informs us of our own futility and God's distance and enormity. I'm not sure how much of it I agree with, but his poems are certainly thought-provoking, and beautiful in their frankness. And this guy was a priest!