A Curiosity

I came across this little gem on a website dedicated to R.S. Thomas. It's Jan Morris's (unpublished) obituary of the great Welshman.

 'He stood there like an old idol,
       Raised from a stony bed.
Strangers sneered, and would be no wiser
                If they read 
               What he said,
But the birds in the wood understood him,
            And shat reverently
                On his head.'

It's that 'reverently' that does it...