There are nights that are so still
that I can hear the small owl calling
far off and a fox barking
miles away. It is then that I lie
in the lean hours awake listening
to the swell born somewhere in the Atlantic
rising and falling, rising and falling
wave on wave on the long shore
by the village, that is without light
and companionless. And the thought comes
of that other being who is awake, too,
letting our prayers break on him,
not like this for a few hours,
but for days, years, for eternity.

May the other come to you this day.
Let your prayers and hearts break upon him
as he is broken for you.

Ronald Stuart Thomas (29 March 1913 – 25 September 2000) was a Welsh poet and Anglican priest.