Keeper of the Flame
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
A reader who has to use an Internet café to go on-line has asked me to repeat the link to my YouTube channel. My friend and cameraman Graham and I are hoping to record more poems ‘on location’ for YouTube, weather and time permitting.
http://www.youtube.com/rogerNtaber
Meanwhile ...
Raking the heart’s embers is easy enough. It takes but one precious memory to stir the flames of a love that was never meant - for whatever reasons - to (quite) fulfil its promises until, with all the passion of regret, we can but watch them fall away like autumn leaves ....
Alternatively, whatever our gender or sexuality, we can find happiness and comfort in the knowledge that we have loved and been loved in return ...
No one is more or less vulnerable than another to any love that only two will ever truly share whether it be parent to child, friend to friend or lover to lover ... and only a fool lets the flame it ignites in us fade and die; rather, let it be a light in any darkness given that there will always be dark times, c'est la vie.
KEEPER OF THE FLAME
Piling on wood,
and the flames leap higher,
bringing us together
as we were that summer
we’d meet up again
and again to go swimming
in the sunshine,
walking in the rain,
playing with fire
from each dawn to sunset,
now flaring, now fading,
like love’s wistful voices,
its weepy echoes
Piling on wood,
and the flames are dancing,
lovers romancing
as we were that summer
we’d cherish
precious moments together,
each one stolen
from those who thought
they knew us,
yet never once suspecting
we were lovers,
not just best of friends
hamming it up
Running out of wood;
too soon, the flames starting
to fall away
like an audience once a play
has reached an ending,
well deserving of applause
even if no one cares
to admit the staged goings-on
were too close
for comfort, disturbing
vulnerable ghosts
ever tearful for being shut
in some secret closet
Eternal flame, ever reworking us
over centuries
Copyright R. N. Taber 2012
[Note: This poem has been slightly revised (final couplet) from the original as it was first published in Tracking the Torchbearer by R N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2012.]
A reader who has to use an Internet café to go on-line has asked me to repeat the link to my YouTube channel. My friend and cameraman Graham and I are hoping to record more poems ‘on location’ for YouTube, weather and time permitting.
http://www.youtube.com/rogerNtaber
Meanwhile ...
Raking the heart’s embers is easy enough. It takes but one precious memory to stir the flames of a love that was never meant - for whatever reasons - to (quite) fulfil its promises until, with all the passion of regret, we can but watch them fall away like autumn leaves ....
Alternatively, whatever our gender or sexuality, we can find happiness and comfort in the knowledge that we have loved and been loved in return ...
No one is more or less vulnerable than another to any love that only two will ever truly share whether it be parent to child, friend to friend or lover to lover ... and only a fool lets the flame it ignites in us fade and die; rather, let it be a light in any darkness given that there will always be dark times, c'est la vie.
KEEPER OF THE FLAME
Piling on wood,
and the flames leap higher,
bringing us together
as we were that summer
we’d meet up again
and again to go swimming
in the sunshine,
walking in the rain,
playing with fire
from each dawn to sunset,
now flaring, now fading,
like love’s wistful voices,
its weepy echoes
Piling on wood,
and the flames are dancing,
lovers romancing
as we were that summer
we’d cherish
precious moments together,
each one stolen
from those who thought
they knew us,
yet never once suspecting
we were lovers,
not just best of friends
hamming it up
Running out of wood;
too soon, the flames starting
to fall away
like an audience once a play
has reached an ending,
well deserving of applause
even if no one cares
to admit the staged goings-on
were too close
for comfort, disturbing
vulnerable ghosts
ever tearful for being shut
in some secret closet
Eternal flame, ever reworking us
over centuries
Copyright R. N. Taber 2012
[Note: This poem has been slightly revised (final couplet) from the original as it was first published in Tracking the Torchbearer by R N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2012.]
Labels: closet, ghosts, human nature, human spirit, life, love, memories, mind-body-spirit, nature, personal space, poetry, posthumous consciousness, relationships
posted by R. N. Taber | 09:47
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