Poetry Live

I once asked someone taking part in a poetry slam how he would define performance poetry. ‘In a word,’ he said, ‘life.’

POETRY LIVE

Words

to music, out of words
let the sun rise
in the eyes of that ragged-eared mongrel
curled on George’s doorstep
tongue lolling stupidly
nostrils a-smoke

Words

to music, out of words
let carnival hot dogs
substitute for garden scents,
make easier the stink
of slop-outs in
the gutter

Words

out of choc-smeared mouths
in Bank Holiday sunshine;
kids in glad rags spilling
on the streets like bin bags;
shirtsleeves copper
getting chatty

Poetry

[From: Love And Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2001]

War Of The Worlds

Humankind may try to emulate or fight nature as much as it might…we might well win a few battles along the way but nature will always win the war. So why not be reconciled and learn from each other?


WAR OF THE WORLDS

For nature’s riches we lust,
some costly battles won,
and whose laugh the longest?

To life’s battlefield, needs must
all fighting men and women;
for nature’s riches we lust

In our faiths we put our trust,
hear an echoing Amen…
and whose laugh the longest?

Time, carrying us so far so fast;
now spears, now lasers gain;
For nature’s riches we lust

All smiles at a harvest feast
(no thanks to acid rain)
and whose laugh the longest?

Needing the most, getting least;
live ghosts groaning in pain;
For nature’s riches we lust
and whose laugh the longest?

[From: A Feeling For The Quickness Of Time by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2005]