Summoned by Ghosts

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

I have learned to live side by side with ghosts. Ghosts can be good company. They are no threat and have a place in our lives. The trick is not to confuse their hopes and aspirations with our own (as we may well have done to our cost when they were alive).

Death is nothing to fear, but life must always take priority. That may sound like commonsense, but I have known people haunted by ghosts to the extent that they might almost be one of them.

There are times when we are particularly vulnerable. A sense of loss leaves us especially open to persuasive voices that may be well-meaning, but don’t always understand how our best interests can be served. When this happens to me as it does from time to time, especially at night and during early hours, I turn to Earth Mother, and invariably find the reassurance I seek.

SUMMONED BY GHOSTS

Come a late hour’s whim,

witness home hills turn to silver ghosts,

shades of midnight’s children

playing with stars, prisoners of the moon,

unable to sleep, anxious of dawn

Above, chance to watch an owl’s

graceful flight., see it circle, swoop, soar,

but can only guess at its prey,

victim, too, of a night that’s no friend

to the vulnerable, lonely…

I have wandered, asked questions

of shadows always mocking me, teasing me

with solutions, chasing grey rabbits

across dark meadows, party to a sad mind’s

convolutions...

At last, hills and sky hosting a new day,

sure to keep less welcome ghosts at bay

Copyright R. N. Taber 2000

[From: Love and Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books 2000.]