Praise as Prayer: Finding Wonder in R.S. Thomas’s Poem of Creation
Discover how R.S. Thomas transforms everyday moments — light, rain, spring — into a divine language that invites us to see our lives as sacred.
Praise
R. S. Thomas
I praise you because
you are artist and scientist
in one. When I am somewhat
fearful of your power,
your ability to work miracles
with a set-square, I hear
you murmuring to yourself
in a notation Beethoven
dreamed of but never achieved.
You run off your scales of
rain water and sea water, play
the chords of the morning
and evening light, sculpture
with shadow, join together leaf
by leaf, when spring
comes, the stanzas of
an immense poem. You speak
all languages and none,
answering our most complex
prayers with the simplicity
of a flower, confronting
us, when we would domesticate you
to our uses, with the rioting
viruses under our lens.
Reflection
This poem invites us to pause before the vast, intricate artistry of existence itself. R.S. Thomas reminds us that what we often try to control or explain with logic is, in reality, sacred mystery. Here, creation is both precision and poetry — rainwater becomes scales, light becomes chords, and spring becomes a stanza. The poem asks us to surrender the need to “domesticate” life and instead stand in awe before its wildness. When we honor what we cannot fully understand, we open our hearts to wonder, humility, and gratitude.
As you read this poem, ask yourself:
Where in your life do you need to let go of control and simply marvel at the miracle unfolding before you?