No Giving Up on Happy-Ever-After

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

Today’s poem was written in 1998. It is autobiographical in so far as it is meant to convey something of a growing child’s passion for myths, legends and fairy stories; arguably, (since I was not conscious of being gay at the time) these prepared me for a world in which gay people might well be called upon to do battle with dragons breathing fire, but would emerge heroic, each in his and her own way.

Many people, of course, discover a sense of spirituality in religion; I found mine long ago...in nature.

By the way, the old-fashioned carnation name ‘pinks’ comes from the serrated flower edges, which look as if cut with pinking shears. The name of the colour pink is said to come from these perennials, which have been popular in gardens for hundreds of years. 

Is there such a place as Happy-Ever-After for any of us? Maybe, maybe not, but it will always be fun finding out; even impossible dreams have their moments, if not far more.

NO GIVING UP ON HAPPY-EVER-AFTER

Child in the garden

on a white horse,

charged with letting myth
run its course;

youth on the streets

every day declines
to say why no romance,
lets gossip run its course,

and... who cares?

Grown in the garden,

close to the earth,

looking to heaven for salvation

and rebirth;

tired eyes, all but closed

to humanity's faults,
for being stung by smoke 

from a bonfire of its vanities,
ashes left to smoulder

Come, ride a white horse

across the sky...

Higher! Nature and human nature
taking stock

of bold pinks blooming

in everyday gardens,

spelling out high hopes
for a kinder Earth, never giving up
on Happy-Ever-Afters

Copyright R. N. Taber 2001; 2016

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears under the title 'An Affinity with Pinks' in Love and Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2001.]