They laid this stone trap
for him, enticing him with candles,
as though he would come like some huge moth
out of the darkness to beat there.
Ah, he had burned himself
before in the human flame
and escaped, leaving the reason
torn. He will not come any more

to our lure. Why, then, do I kneel still
striking my prayers on a stone
heart? Is it in hope one
of them will ignite yet and throw
on its illumined walls the shadow
of someone greater than I can understand?

– RS Thomas, ‘The Empty Church’, in Collected Poems, 1945–1990 (London: Dent, 1993), 349.

[Image: Tara Alan & Tyler Kellen]