Taliesin 2006
After R.S.Thomas
by W. Todd Jones

I am alive, my roots go back to the beginning
and maybe to a time of no time before.
I have been accounted a success and a failure, a fool and a wise man,
my mind believing all by turns.
I have drunk from the spring that flows,
though am often parched.
I have been a traveller in this world and the other,
Seeing the common take hideous mask.
I have been loved and spurned,
now ecstatic, now downcast.
I am subject to the softness of flesh,
my strength and my weakness.
I reach as high as I can,
though this is often not enough.
I will become dust, the worms will have me.
The body's corruption is not welcome.

But
I will not pass this way unheeded,
duty is no burden; it is reason.
I will use whatever voice is given me to shout out my obstinacy,
so that the line remain continuous.
I will carry a land and a people tight to me,
knowing I cannot return, since only an echo remains.
I was born to live and wish to be remembered for having done so.
I was born to die or else there is no room for my children.

Photograph by Ben Cole

Visit W. Todd Jones at the Endicott website

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