Getting the Better of Rock and Hard Place

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

It often strikes me as one of life's more bitter-sweet ironies that it's the heart in winter that focuses most on spring...

Me, I have never been as happy as the too few years I shared with my late partner a long time ago. Even so, I learned to be happy again. Oh, I have never met anyone else with whom I wanted to share my life, but I have made some good friends, found a curious peace, comfort and joy in my poetry as well as being blessed with a natural optimism to see me through. I may not be a very successful writer, but success has never meant as much to me as enjoying life in my own way.  [Yes, I have prostate cancer, but have all I need to see me through that too.]

Love comes to each and every one of us in all shapes and forms; its effect on us never (quite) fades even though sometimes it may be but a visitor, passing through. The past, too, is a part of us and never forgotten, whether or not it needs to be tempered by forgiveness, nor should it ever be where it has made us happy. Ah, but it's building on that happiness, making the most of the present, each of us in our own way, and looking forward to the future that counts…no matter what. As for various socio-cultural-religious dogma/conventions refusing to take our side for one reason or another, the human spirit knows better; religion does not have a monopoly on spirituality any more than conventions have rights or dictatorship.

GETTING THE BETTER OF ROCK AND HARD PLACE

I walked in a wood one winter

as I had with my true love one spring,

promising ourselves to each other;
the trees were bare, yet so splendid,

whose leaves happy enough to perform

the music of life just for us

Heavens, near empty and grey,

whose wings of light once, our spring,

gaily affirmed Earth Mother’s love;

world, a spread of snow where flowers

(all kinds and colours) created an ocean

of brave dreams just for us

I let my heart fall to the ground

where you lay your raincoat one spring,

our first lovemaking blessed;

yet, my heart refused to stay long,

but spread wings (just as it had before)

meant to survive all weathers

I’ll not let it grieve me that nature

should liken its life force to a graveyard,

and we among the fallen;

life goes on, poor humanity caught

between its rocks and hard places save

for the enduring power of love

Copyright R. N. Taber 2010; 2015