Incisive initials
temper the steel
to cut the careless Celt
for sins of omission

Ronald would be wrong
for that harsh Welsh critic
an outsider
like the English

I wrote this poem shortly after the death of RS Thomas. It was the first poem I ever had published, appearing in an Anglo Welsh Poetry Society collection titled poems celebrating the life of RS Thomas. It was consciously intended to be close to his notably terse style and, though I didn't know it at the time, laid the foundation for my own later poems.

Picture courtesy of the RS Thomas Study Centre