Keeper of the Light

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

“There are hundreds of paths up the mountain, all leading to the same place, so it doesn’t matter which path you take. The only person wasting time is the one who runs around the mountain, telling everyone that his or her path is wrong.” – Hindu Proverb 

“… where Beauty was, nothing ever ran quite straight which, no doubt, which was why so many people looked on it as immoral.” – John Galsworthy

“Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul.” – Walt Whitman 

 “Beauty awakens the soul to act.” Dante Alighieri

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” – John Keats

Now, we all have good and bad memories, but the reason why happier times will always get the better of and rise above the worst is invariably due to an active inner eye and ear focusing on the kinder aspects of heart-and-soul which, by its very nature, will always home in on the positive rather than the negative; the key is, of course to keep focusing on the former, no matter how tough the going may get. 

Yes, sometimes we fail, but where there is life, there always  really is hope… in our hands, be it, no one else’s; any help along the way is always much appreciated, if not always acknowledged at the time....

KEEPER OF THE LIGHT

I see only what I can feel;
though my eyes may well argue
the truth of this,
they cannot win, for the inner eye
sees all that matters
to keep such true faith with me
as exists way beyond
any worldly processes of part or whole
that come to hunt us all

To know me is to love me 
or prove my enemy and yours,
a united front
comprising secret jealousies,
frustrations and rage
that can neither  possess me
nor find an equal
to compare with such mixed a passion
as the poetry of imagination

Hunted, haunted, good-bad
lost and found again, it is I inspires
a greater humanity
to endure, urging all its kind
keep faith with me; 
though Memory’s whim may take us 
here, there, everywhere,
it is for love of me that it can but prevail
for messaging heart-and-soul

I am called Beauty, humanity’s inner eye
on the kinder face of eternity

Copyright R. N. Taber 2022

[Note: This poem-post also appears on my general poetry blog today. Although feedback suggests that more LGBT readers are dipping into both blogs, feedback makes clear that some share a computer and are not ready to be open about their sexual orientation.]

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

 

 

Autobiography of a Light Bulb

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

Today's poem first appeared on my general poetry blog in 2010. A reader, Marc, who admits "I don't visit your other poetry blog often enough, especially as your poems and comments there are often support of gay people worldwide. Yesterday, I did, and discovered 'Autobiography of a Light Bulb'.Do put this on the gay blog please, I loved it, and am sure my gay brothers and sisters around the world will too." Well, many thanks for that, Martin. Hopefully, more gay readers will enjoy the poem. [It is always hard to choose which poems to publish on which blogs; a poem is a poem is a poem just as a person is a person is a person ... but it would be pretty boring for readers if I put the same poem of both blogs all the time, yeah?]

Now,people often tell me they have a feeling for poetry and would love to write a poem but never seem to find inspiration. Well, look around you. As I have often said, you can write a poem on just about anything,  I have written poems about tables, chairs, even puddles...

A reader once challenged me on this.He contacted me to suggest I could not write a poem about a light bulb.

Never let it be said I’d duck such a challenge.

Too many of us, I suspect, remain in the dark about so many things, including ourselves, but it is never too late to switch on, and take a good look; thereby lies the path to discernment and understanding...of ourselves, others too.We may be a diverse human race, but no one person in or facet of it has a monopoly on the human spirit; it is common to us all if less common is how, when or whether we ever choose to acknowledge and address it.

[Image taken from the Internet]

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A LIGHT BULB

I have coloured the cheeks of a child
at a birthday party

I have seen quarrels turn into beatings
and draw blood

I have watched over students yawning
for trying to concentrate

I have watched over meetings ringing
with raised voices

I have followed the progress of lovers
with delight

I am privy to secrets a journalist would
die for

I have been amused by such melodrama
as politicians love to stage

I have been moved by a significant few
brokering for peace

I become incensed by folks playing safe
for a quiet life

I despair of clerics reworking scriptures
to exonerate themselves

I empathise with poets transcending light
to justify darkness

Yet, party as I am to the whole sorry mess,
at least I can switch off

Copyright R. N. Taber 2010