Where the Earth laughs Longest

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

I hope you are all ok and keeping well. I am fine (yes, really!) despite my continuing treatment for (non aggressive) prostate cancer. Oh, I have good days and bad days, but don't we all even when in the best of health? On a good day, you will probably find a blog entry here. On bad days, don't worry about yours truly. I am very good at making the best of bad times.

Meanwhile...

Every so often I am asked to post a link to my poetry reading on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2009. People often ask for a CD. Sorry, but Sky Arts refused to let participants have a CD of their contributions so we only have a link to the British Library archive:

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100223121732/oneandother.co.uk/participants/Roger_T [For now, at least, this link needs the latest Adobe Flash Player  and works best in Firefox; the archives website cannot run Flash but changes scheduled for later this year may well mean the link will open without it. Ignore any error message and give it a minute or so to start up. The video lasts an hour. ] RT 3/18

Some readers have kindly said they enjoyed my 4^th Plinth reading and asked if I have any more videos. Well, only on my YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/rogerNtaber (I hope to add more uploads as time goes by.) 

Meanwhile…

Now, love plays an important part in all our lives, and it is my belief that this does not end when our hearts stop beating.  Nature, not any religious faith persuaded me of this long ago. Religion does not have a monopoly on love any more than it has on spirituality.

Love, in all its shapes and forms is a spiritual experience denied to no one. Only, everyone has to find it for themselves in their own time and their own way. Never believe people who insist they have a template for love anyone can use; people are inclined to prioritize, and in so doing they discriminate even if unintentionally.

Yes, yes, I know I’ve said all this before…and will probably do so again. True, the world is becoming a kinder place for LGBT lovers but there remain vast swathes of less enlightened people among the heterosexual majority in a world that still has much to learn about love and a long way to go before it puts its money where its mouth is when it encourages talk of Equality, Human Rights, and Peace.

Oh, and in my experience of being openly gay for many years, the key to survival lies not only in love, but also in laughter; if we cannot laugh at ourselves sometimes, the world's bigots win hands down.

'The Earth laughs in flowers'. - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Hamatreya)

WHERE THE EARTH LAUGHS LONGEST

At the moment of my death,

we‘ll make love again, just as

when our first twilight fell,

late summer leaves like a shower

of September rain, nature

casting a spell to keep us safer

than Holy Books dare tell

At the moment of my death,

we’ll make love again, creating

as much joy and more

than it has given us, we chosen,

meant to fly time and space,

any separation but a homing-in

on some glorious horizon

At the moment of my death,

our love will surely kill all pain,

be as a tree in blossom,

its springtime come again, though

a storm play tricks on its light,

for I shall rise above any threat

to return where first we met

At the moment of my death,

the spirit of love will leave a mark

much like a smile on my pillow,

and I’ll be guided by Earth Mother

to your side, she who kept faith

with us while we lived, as we two

stayed true to each other

Though life lead us up a garden path,
it's love always has the last laugh...

Copyright R. N. Taber 2012; 2018

[Note; An alternative final couplet appears in an earlier version of this poem first published under the title 'Earth Mother, Spirit of Love' in Tracking the Torchbearer by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2012]