These two late texts from the Welsh clergyman-poet R S Thomas (1913-2000) express and explore his emotional commitment to his wife. They can be found in the volume of his Uncollected Poems, edited by Tony Brown and Jason Walford Davies (Bloodaxe Books, £9.95).

 BIRTHDAY

Come to me a moment. Stand

Ageing yet lovely still,

At my side, let me tell you that,

With the clouds massing for attack

And the wind worrying the leaves

From the branches and the blood seeping

Thin and slow through the ventricles

Of the heart, I regret less,

Looking back on the poem’s

Weakness, the failure of the mind

To be clever than of the heart

To deserve you as you showed how.

       LUMINARY

My luminary,

my morning and evening

star. My light at noon

when there is no sun

and the sky lowers. My balance

of joy in a world

that has gone off joy’s

standard. Yours the face

that young I recognised

as though I had known you

of old. Come, my eyes

said, out into the morning

of a world whose dew

waits for your footprint.

Before a green altar

with the thrush for priest

I took those gossamer

vows that neither the Church

could stale nor the Machine

tarnish, that with the years

have grown hard as flint,

lighter than platinum

on our ringless fingers.