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