Finders, Keepers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

Today’s poem last appeared on the blog in February 2010 and is repeated today for new readers and because it’s a favourite of mine and more than slightly autobiographical...

FINDERS, KEEPERS

It was a bleak wintry day,

heart hanging low from snow clouds above

with nothing to say

but how there’s really no counting on love;

I just couldn’t get warm,

longed for your arms to hug and embrace me

but all I had was a dream

and yesterday’s carrot-nose snowman

grinning inanely

Even a robin was grieving

as if, suddenly, it was all too much to bear,

and where, oh, where was spring?

No one here to ask, not even Earth Mother

as branches of an oak tree

groaned under the weight of fresh snow,

empathising with me,

if but a crumb of comfort where my love 

dare not go

The lake, it was frozen over,

ducks and moorhens waddling across pearly ice;

I ran then, for solace and shelter,

only to find myself outside your house;

‘Knock on the door,’ the robin sang

flying low overhead as if sounding out my youth,

its song no longer weak but strong,

as our love had been before challenged 

by some deeper truth

I glanced back at the oak tree,

but it was the snowman, resolved to catch my eye,

and still grinning away at me,

that challenged me to give gay love a try;

I never did knock on the door;

suddenly, you were there for me, arms flung wide,

and I knew we’d be as once before

when the oak saw us find what no snow 

could ever hide

Copyright R. N. Taber 2010

[From: Tracking the Torchbearer by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2012.]