A reflection on mature love, both painful and tender, from the great Welsh cleric-poet R S Thomas, whose centenary fell this year.

It's included in the volume of his Uncollected Poems, edited by Tony Brown and Jason Walford Davies (Bloodaxe Books, £9.95).

BIRTHDAY

Come to me for 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.

2002