THE Welsh poet-cleric R S Thomas was born in 1913 and his centenary has been widely marked.

Tomorrow, the Glasgow poetry club, St Mungo's Mirrorball, pays its own tribute with a selection of his work read by club members. This little piece (my choice), capturing a visionary moment, will be familiar to regular followers of this column. Thomas's Collected Poems 1945-1990 are published by Phoenix Press.

THE BRIGHT FIELD

I have seen the sun break through

to illuminate a small field

for a while, and gone my way

and forgotten it. But that was the pearl

of great price, the one field that had

the treasure in it. I realise now

that I must give all that I have

to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after

an imagined past. It is the turning

aside like Moses to the miracle

of the lit bush, to a brightness

that seemed as transitory as your youth

once, but is the eternity that awaits you.