R S Thomas could be crabbit, critical, hard to get on with. The poems reveal a man uncomfortably stuck with the limits and frustrations of his own self, and knowing as few Christian poets have known better, the further and fiercer limits and frustrations of trying to bring that self into relation with the great Other, the God we all but analyse out of existence.
So this poem comes as a surprise. The poet's ironic take on the child's observation of the anguished loss of dance and play and make believe and sheer acceptance of the joy of being that is childhood. I wonder if this is Thomas's commentary on Jesus words, " Unless you change and become as a child, you will never enter the Kingdom of God." (Matthew 18.3) The adult view of the world is grown up; which means experienced, more cautious, "knowing" in that way of thinking that is Health and Safety applied as a life principle. Children, happily, know nothing of this; and postmodern adulthood could do worse than change, and rediscover the deeper and different roots of, the deeper and different routes to, a world of recovered wonder and trust.
Knees are important in Thomas's poetry - not far from knees is prayer, and supplication, and in Thomas's theology prayerful supplication that has no guaranteed outcome in any answer, and perhaps no certainty even of being heard. And just perhaps,, this poem is Thomas's own recognition that the world of the child has more to commend it than all the sophistication and life experience and power games and nameless anxieties of being responsible, accountable, and a seeker of purpose and meaning.
Children’s Song
We live in our own world,
A world that is too small
For you to stoop and enter
Even on hands and knees,
The adult subterfuge.
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
(The image is by Joe Aspell, a statue of Joseph playing with Jesus - or maybe Jesus teaching Joseph to play).
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