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].

Name:
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.

Thursday 7 November 2019

Nature, On Cue OR Mind-Body-Spirit, Balancing Act

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

A new poem today. (Still working on a kenning.) I was in my kitchen, watching sunlight through trees in the garden glancing off the very table at which I was sitting...a poem forming in my head even as I watched foxes playing and sunning themselves on the lawn attached to the basement flat below. I had been feeling sorry for myself after getting little sleep due to both a venous infection harassing my left foot and my prostate cancer making demands on my bladder. As I watched, my spirits began to rise; it was as if surrounding positive life forces were urging me to get the better of despondency and re-establish affinity with the brighter side of life.

I took the hint, spent ages on the poem and an feeling much the better for it. Whether or not my critics may judge it a good poem is less important than its reconciling me with a love for nature and faith in human nature, often tested in a person's later years when demands of the day include having to rise about health and mobility problems, make at least some headway on the housework, negotiate mad, rushing crowds long enough get the shopping done and still manage to keep looking on that often elusive brighter side of life.

NATURE, ON CUE or MIND-BODY-SPIRIT, BALANCING ACT

Sunlight in the trees
smiling down at me, encouraging
mind-body-spirit
to at least keep a balance where it teeters
on the edge of free fall

Apollo, whispering at my ear
to stay focused on what matters in life,
ignore conspiratorial forces
infusing better judgement with native fears
of rejection for any mistakes

Moonlight in the trees
winking at me, by way of reassuring
mind-body-spirit;
only human this tearful lying awake at night
fretting demands of the day

Selene, whispering in my ear
to sleep well, clear mind-body-spirit
of all nemeses,
conserve finer strengths, kinder judgements
on any demands of the day

Earth Mother, all around,
no metaphor for old gods and goddesses
but a consortium
of life forces to be seen, heard, drawn upon
at the edge of free fall

Look-see-listen-hear-feel
the trees relating a history of good-bad-evil
across a common humanity,
beauty and survival as good a personification
as any for its kinder side

Leaves, falling like flakes 
of light from the sky, the dark of humanity 
to see better by... 
for its history, a learning curve to its mystery, 
our Here-and-Now


Copyright R. N. Taber 2019

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