Lost For Words

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

[Update (Oct 2016): Regular readers will know that writing (fiction as well as poetry, but especially the latter,  began as more of a creative therapy than an art form for me. Having been subject to bouts of depression since childhood, writing (and reading) have provided an escape from the harsher aspects of reality while, at the same time, helping to keep its demons at bay. These days, it also distracts me from mobility problems due to a bad fall in 2014 and living with prostate cancer (since 2011) not to mention the usual problems that growing old is inclined to spring on us at short notice. 

Yes, life could be better and I did not anticipate growing old without a partner (I am 70+ now)  but I have some good friends, my writing, my blogs, you,  my readers, and plenty to keep me looking on the bright side of life...]

Now, readers who have been following my fiction blog keep asking if Dog Roses and/or Like There’s No Tomorrow are available in print form or as e-books; the answer is, no.  I had been hoping to upload both as e-books eventually, but ...

Although my fiction blog has not taken off as well as the poetry blogs, it is very gratifying that they are being read at all - especially by so many of you - as neither literary agents nor publishers showed any interest in my  gay-interest fiction; eventually, I gave up on them but continued to enjoy writing both gay and general novels you will find in the blog. I would not have missed that experience for the world. 

Looking for inspiration? Just take a look around you; in nature and human nature, the world is a writer's oyster.

  

http://rogertaberfiction.blogspot.com/2011/07/dog-roses-chapter-one.html (A gay rights-of-passage novel)

http://rogertaberfiction.blogspot.com/2011/10/like-theres-no-tomorrow-synopsis_3445.html (Not a gay novel, but about a woman who hasn’t given up finding out what happened to  her daughter who disappeared some 20+ years ago)

U.K. readers also want to know  why they cannot order Catching Up With Murder, my black comedy-crime novel (with more than a hint of gay interest, but not a gay novel as such) from (most) bookstores; this is because the publishers (Raider International) do not work with the UK Book Suppliers from whom book stores obtain copies.]

For anyone interested, info about my fiction is available at:

http://rogertaberfiction.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/news-updates-fiction.html

Meanwhile...

If you enjoy writing in any genre and despair of having writer’s block, you are not alone. I, for one, know the feeling only too well! All I can say is stay positive and stick at it; published or not, creative therapy (in any form) is the best if not only answer to any flagging mind-body-spirit.

LOST FOR WORDS

Watching clouds,

not a face to be seen,

nor rain sounds

like a tambourine

or falling leaves,

more than hinting at grief

for fair Persephone

gone to ground,

though the wind above

lends an ear too,

no stranger to the cries

for a lost love

to old gods above,

but no one left to hear

except the remains

of a humanity caught

with its pants down

The reality, nothing

any different, everything

much the same

Swan on the lake,

pile of whitest down

(no regal robes

or kingdom’s crown);

lark, a mere bird,

drops in long grass

(no ripples across

a green sea or tinkling

of breaking glass);

cars on the highway,

once Caterpillar

at a fair…undercover,

simile and metaphor,

not a good word even

for a heaven where

gain v loss break even

Well of imagination

misted over like breath

on a mirror

Copyright R. N. Taber 2008; 2010; 2016

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appeared on the blog, but was inadvertently deleted; also in  The Third Eye by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2004.]