Red

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

Some readers may be interested to know that I read today's poem among others on the 4th plinth in London's Trafalgar Square in July 2009 as my contribution to Sir Antony Gormley's One and Other 'live sculpture' project. (That summer 2,400 people were randomly selected to do their 'own thing' for one hour, 24/7 over 100 days.):

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100223121732/oneandother.co.uk/participants/Roger_T [For now, at least, this link needs the latest Adobe Flash Player  and works best in Firefox; the archives website cannot run Flash but changes scheduled for later this year may well mean the link will open without it. Ignore any error message and give it a minute or so to start up. The video lasts an hour. ] RT 3/18

Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, wherever… war and various conflicts world-wide make most if not all of us see red…not only for the loss of life and those left psychologically scarred but also because the politics behind them is invariably suspect, to say the least.

On Home Fronts, too, find bigotry and prejudice creating various socio-cultural-religious divisions within world societies.

If politics can be a dirty business, there can be none so dirty at the Politics of Red.

RED

Shades of red, as colouring world religions,

writing political agendas

When I open my heart, I see red - the colour

of your courage

When I open my eyes, I see red - the colour

of my pain

Red, too, shades of our last sunset before you

left do your duty far away

Red also, on the flag that covered your coffin

as a band played you home

Red, these eyes, that have no tears left for us

but must see their way clear

Red, these lips that will never kiss yours again

but must reassure generations

When I open my heart, I see red - the colour

of your blood

When I open my eyes, I see red - the colour

of my rage

Shades of red, as colouring humankind’s boast

of a common humanity

[From: Accomplices To Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007]