A Poet's Blog: Roger N.Taber shares his thoughts & poems...

Thoughts and observations by English poet Roger N. Taber, a retired librarian and poet-novelist.- "Ethnicity, Religion, Gender, Sexuality ... these are but parts of a whole. It is the whole that counts." RNT [NB While I have no wish to create a social network, I will always reply to critical emails about my poetry. Contact: rogertab@aol.com].

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Location: London, United Kingdom

Sadly, a bad fall in 2012 has left me with a mobility problem, and being diagnosed with prostate cancer the same year hasn't helped, but I get out and about with my trusty walking stick as much as I can, take each day as it comes and try to keep looking on the bright(er) side of life. Many of my poems reflect the need to nurture a positive-thinking mindset whatever life throws at us.

Sunday, 27 April 2014

Riders of the Watch


Today's poem has not appeared on the blog since 2007, and I have since revised it; the original version also appeared in a Drifting Thoughts, Poetry Today (Forward Press), 2000.

I recall once walking along the water’s edge in the moonlight. I was very unhappy. I saw no point in continuing the battle of wits between head and heart. Yet, the feisty beauty of a summer night touched whatever it is in us we like to call ‘soul’ and instead of lamenting an ending, I began to anticipate a new beginning...

(Photo taken from the Internet)

RIDERS OF THE WATCH

Moon shadows,
riding white horses across a vast rippling plain
of dark despair;
a dashing of hooves,
indelible imprint on what passes
for the soul

Ghost riders, all deceit and lies,
shivering, shimmering, desperately willing us
to run...

Oh, but where?

Stripped bare, a lifetime's audacity;
time to cast off the trappings and pretty wrappings
of integrity;
Waves, a crashing ovation
for giving reason its marching orders, joining
the heart’s accomplices

Ghost riders, all deceit and lies,
shivering, shimmering, desperately willing us
to run...

Regeneration

Moon shadows, a force for salvation
among the flotsam and jetsam of human frailty
left for us beachcombers
to spot and salvage
what dreams we can (if at nature’s caprice)
without losing face

Copyright R. N. Taber 2000; 2011

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in Love And Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2000]

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