http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
[Update - December 25th 2019: Sadly, the Memorial Wall I am told the wall has now been neglected and encroached upon by commercial ventures to the extent that the path which used to exist taking visitors past the wall and giving a fine view over the bay has been blocked. Apparently, even before the memorial was unveiled five years ago, certain townsfolk made it clear they did not want it so now they, at least, will be well pleased. Complaints to the local council have been ignored, in my humble opinion a disgrace. Yes, the memorial was for those who have died of AIDS in Bournemouth, but - metaphorically - it was also for those who have died of AIDS worldwide; since people are still dying of AIDS worldwide, it would appear that human nature is such that it doesn't really care...? Whatever happened to the Spirit of Christmas...?]
December 1st is World AIDS Day. I wrote
today’s poem at the request of the Chairman of DAMSET, an HIV-AIDS Educational
Trust in Dorset after giving a poetry reading in Bournemouth public library,
and subsequently dedicated it to DAMSET in my collection, Accomplices to Illusion. DAMSET was established with a view to
creating a memorial mural for all those in Bournemouth who have died of AIDS, and was
later extended to cover the whole of Dorset. The mural is now well established
near the pier and I feel very privileged that my poem is included.
I read
the poem on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square on July 14th 2009 as
my contribution to sculptor Sir Antony Gormley’s One and Other ‘live sculpture’ and you can still catch it at the
British Library archive. [However, be warned; the video of my plinth
experience and (very informal) poetry reading lasts an hour.]: www.oneandother.co.uk/participants/Roger_T [NB: Sept 19, 2019 - The British Library confirmed today that he video is no longer available as it was incompatible with a new IT system, However, it still exists and BL hope to reinstate it and make it available to the public again at some future date.] RNT
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF A BEACH
Sun and
moon, sailing fickle skies
to safe
harbours;
Sea, like
a cabbage-stained tablecloth
edged with
white lace;
Heads
peering up, peering down
as they
have always done,
listening
to waves, voices of the heart
that stay
with us, move on with us,
play a
part in our lives, no matter all
temporal
hosts come and gone,
sun and
moon out of reach, cabbage
stains on
the world’s tablecloths…
tales
told by shells on Bournemouth
beach of
those whose faces may
blur with
time but we remember them,
who died
of AIDS and not to blame
(the
fruits of love bitter-sweet, yet better
by far to
live by it than hate)
nor sexuality,
physicality, morality,
any match
for our own mortality
but as
small boats on a passionate sea
driven by
a feeling for integrity;
Come a
time when death may put love
out of
reach, then take a walk
on the
sand, talk with the waves, listen
to shells
on Bournemouth beach
(or any
other that stirs a grieving soul
to
recover the heart’s grail);
join a
passing ship awhile, carrying
family,
friends, lovers, even
old
neighbours…by day and night,
be they
gay or straight…cruise
Loving
Memory’s fair shores, share
old
jokes, laugh about crises
over
cabbage stains on best tablecloths
To inner
eye (and ear) time never deleted
nor love,
though AIDS, ever defeated
[Bournemouth,
Dorset, March 2006)
[From: Accomplices To Illusion, by
R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007; revised ed. in e-format in preparation.]
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