Transitory Brightness (take time to turn aside)

The Bright Field

I have seen the sun break through 

to illuminate a small field

for awhile, 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 realize 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.

          — R.S. Thomas