A Poet's Blog: Roger N.Taber shares his thoughts & poems...

Thoughts and observations by English poet Roger N. Taber, a retired librarian and poet-novelist.- "Ethnicity, Religion, Gender, Sexuality ... these are but parts of a whole. It is the whole that counts." RNT [NB While I have no wish to create a social network, I will always reply to critical emails about my poetry. Contact: rogertab@aol.com].

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Location: London, United Kingdom

Sadly, a bad fall in 2012 has left me with a mobility problem, and being diagnosed with prostate cancer the same year hasn't helped, but I get out and about with my trusty walking stick as much as I can, take each day as it comes and try to keep looking on the bright(er) side of life. Many of my poems reflect the need to nurture a positive-thinking mindset whatever life throws at us.

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Conversation Piece(s)

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

The original version of today’s poem was written in 1976 and has appeared in several poetry magazines and anthologies. I have since made some revisions, but retained lower case throughout. Why? Because I still feel it makes the point that conversations are like jigsaws; as we try to piece it all together,  we may well find ourselves making poor (not necessarily bad) guesses,  as if our bigger picture in our mind's eye doesn't quite correspond to that on the box cover. 

Now, this may not be one of my best poems, but it remains a firm favourite of mine, not least because it turns on a theme to which I will return time and again in my later poems; a breakdown of communication between two people on a meaningful, personal level in modern society, not least for each of them looking at the same picture in the same conversation's frame, but from different perspectives. The result can be thoughts and conversations left hanging, not unlike gaps in a jigsaw looking to be filled. In terms of conversation, this can only be resolved once those concerned accept the need to keep the same picture in view while allowing for its being approached from different angles.

Here we are in an age of increasingly sophisticated technology, yet fewer and fewer people ever sit down and talk to each other, and I don’t mean making small talk or talking at people (because we so love the sound of our own voices?) or IM'ing on social networks, Internet chat rooms and mobile phones....  I mean face to face sitting down and talking things through, and listening to each other.

Oh, but I have met so many people - members of my own family included - who will only talk about something if they know they are gong to like what they hear; so much as any hint of opposition to their point of view, and they don’t want to know. As for confronting home truths, that is rarely if ever on the agenda; nor can they be persuaded by any suggestion of a mutual exchange.

So is it any wonder that so many relationships fall apart, family members become estranged, best friends become sworn enemies and work colleagues cannot stand to be in the same room as each other....? 

It takes two to talk and two to listen or the chances are there will be more wrong assumptions, misunderstandings, misinterpreted actions or words distorting our personal space than man-made waste polluting the atmosphere.

When did YOU last have a worthwhile two-way conversation or frank exchange of views with someone close rather than let them eat away at your patience till it snaps...or worse? A jigsaw requires patience to piece together the picture on its box. While some of us may well feel we live in boxes, those cover pictures may well be very similar, but rarely the same unless we happen to be on much the  same wavelength. Could that be why the Spirit of Love excels at human jigsaws...?

CONVERSATION PIECE(S)

not a bad day,
so I’ve heard say 
over the jam

could have been worse;
by the way, I saw a hearse this morning
outside number five

good to be alive,
even in a cactus twilight creeping
under the skin

there’s a scratching 
at the door, better let the cat in I suppose,
but before I do...

tell me, who else 
knows about us or even suspects 
anything...?

here we sit, you and I,
like figures at that hearse, scratching away
with each eye...

for something to say 
after clocking up much the usual
hours apart...

what’s that?
okay, I’ll go let in
the cat

Copyright R. N. Taber 1976; 2012 

[Note: An earlier version of this poem has appeared on the blog under the title  Conversation Piece, also in Love and Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2000] RNT

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