Life Forces, Life Choices OR Home Truths, Darkness and Light

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

Sleep can bring rest and peace, but it can also create a disturbingly mixed bag of thoughts and possibilities that happen to be preying on mind-body-spirit at any given time. 

With any luck, the first light of dawn will bring to bring an awakening to reality, truth or whatever it is we recognise as being the ultimate source of the disturbance…or not, as the case may be. 

Such is the vulnerability of human nature that we don’t always recognise and/ or accept what goes on behind such closed minds as bearing little if any resemblance to our own … until sleep sets certain underlying life forces upon us that dwell in the subconscious, demanding we see and make choices… for better or worse. 

There were times as a child when I’d need the light on to fall asleep because I was afraid of the dark, not least for its offering no comfort and reassurance the way light does. Many adults as well as children are feeling much the same way now, especially in an everchanging situation and the failure of some governments - including here in England - to recognise the effects of changing its mind at short notice regarding what steps are best taken to control the spread of the coronavirus variant on ordinary people as well as businesses. 

Yes, vaccines are on the way and there is light at the end of the tunnel, but it is a very long tunnel and we need more light now. Government may be’ led by the science’ but it would help us all to have some light shed on just what that science is, and who is advising whom on what… 

LIFE FORCES, LIFE CHOICES or HOME TRUTHS, DARKNESS AND LIGHT

Patches of blue
starting to spread across gloomy skies,
signs of sunlight
struggling to break through,
make a difference
to poor humanity, battling against
a coronavirus
threating to defeat even the most positive
among its thinkers 

Apollo, never one
to surrender to the Forces of Darkness,
better known
for retreating awhile to let the stars
buy us time
to bring all the Powers of Light
into play,
among them, life forces able to bring humanity
to its senses 

Come, light of day,
despatching nightmares into such free fall
as Fear knows
only too well, Hope getting a grip,
inciting Courage
to call its bluff, see off such bullies
as Jealousy, Bigotry,
Hate and Hypocrisy, make them drink of the milk
of human kindness 

See Apollo re-emerge,
in time to call the bullies’ bluff for giving
mind-body-spirit
time enough to reflect on various
alternatives - to
(far) better means to whatever it seeks
than being left
having to justify any solution for as good an answer
as any, right or wrong 

Copyright R. N. Taber, 2021

 

 

L-I-F-E, Spelling us (All) Out

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

This poem is taken from my general blog archives for January 2015.

I will not be posting poems from any blog archives after today, but visitors are welcome to explore them on either or both blogs; archives go back ten years and are listed on the right hand side of any blog page. Meanwhile, I will continue to post new poems as and when I write them, but am giving priority to creating revised editions of my six poetry collections for readers to access online. This will take some time as I am very unwell these days although, as always, staying positive and looking on the bright side of life. Enjoy the archives, and if you know any poetry lovers feel feel free to recommend, everyone welcome.

Most if not all of us wonder at various stages in our lives just what lies in store for us, and how much of that may be down our own actions whenever giving thanks for the good times or finding excuses for the bad.  

What is the ultimate truth about human life, anyway, but a complex organism of mind, body and spirit embracing all that’s down to us, whomsoever, and whatever it is we like to call ‘fate’ (or God?) to spell out as we go, make sense of as we can, and heed or ignore as we choose.

L-I-F-E, SPELLING US (ALL) OUT

As a child,
I would play as a child,
cry as a child,
try to make sense
of a world I would never
understand

As a youth,
I explored the passion
of youth,
chasing its gods
through a world I struggled
to defend

As a young man,
I would point a finger
at bigotry,
tracking its origins
through looking glass wars 
all around

Older, little wiser,
I would run the gamut
of rogue truths
draining the body
for demanding centre stage 
of the mind

Mature. Human eyes
reassessing any potential,
fast tracking us 
to dog ears pricking up
at even the slightest breath
of ill wind 

Dead to all intents
and purposes, found wanting
for failing to clear
the table of leftovers
for history to make sense    
of a kind

Copyright R. N. Taber 2015

I and I, a Feeling for Sexuality

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

For the benefit of any new readers, I should perhaps explain that I also some upload historic as well as current blog posts to Google Plus. I regularly add and remove these so readers can access up to about 30 poems without having to trawl 1,000+ poems on my blogs. It seems to work well, and feedback has been very encouraging so I will continue:

https://plus.google.com/118347623673930289606/posts

Regarding my You Tube channel, it appears that some viewers have not realized they should keep the sound on to hear the poems I read over the later videos nor that the poem is also included in the description that accompanies each video. Hopefully, this information will add to your enjoyment as Graham and I have a lot of fun shooting the videos and writing the poems. We don’t have a state of the arts video camera, though, so don’t expect a BBC level production:

http://www.youtube.com/rogerNtaber

Today’s poem was written in 1976, the year my mother died, and a time when I was  in and out of the closet like a jack-in-the-box, and only ever open about my sexuality to certain people in certain places at certain times in my life.  

My mother was OK about my being gay, but felt it was best kept under wraps and my brother and father should be kept in ignorance, although I would be very surprised if they had not already guessed. Since I’d had an appalling relationship with my father since childhood and my brother (at the time, anyway) was openly homophobic, I sensed she was probably right. It would take a severe nervous breakdown three years later before I finally came ‘out’ to everyone in the early 1980s, and to stay.

Re-reading this poem, I think it gives a sense of my confused torment at the time. It is a harsh indictment on the twenty-first century that there are countries and pockets of democratic societies, too, where gay boys and girls, men and women, are experiencing much the same torment. We can but hope common sense and humanity will prevail and the whole world will, in time, become a more gay-friendly place.

I AND I, A FEELING FOR SEXUALITY

Don’t wax lyrical about loneliness
                                                says the Man
tell’em just what it can do,
                                       how it will
kill the eye, give the lie
to that so-smooth brow
                                 you’re
scrubbing at;

Don’t make out
                       it doesn’t pain you
to prepare for another day
                                      no different
from yesterday, unless
that face you’re
                        making
cracks!

Okay, run a comb through your hair
                                                    says the Man
and straighten your tie
                          just so...
Here’s your jacket,
maybe we’ll
                    make it?
Come, come...

No, no, don’t throw it
                          at the cat
or rip your throat
                         like that,
you’ll tear my shirt.
Now we’ll be
                          late
for work

Don’t swear at me
                           says the Man,
it’s not my fault
                       you can’t
stand the closet
any more. Now, get off
                           that floor.
Yes, now!

Oh, and blow your nose, you’re getting
on my nerves…

Copyright R. N. Taber, 2000

[From: Love and Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2000.]