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.

Monday, 13 January 2020

Alternatives

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

I am often asked why I subscribe to no religion and how, as a poet, I can live with no sense of spirituality. Well, I relate most closely to pantheism - more of a philosophy than a religion - and take a strong sense of spirituality from nature. Yes, I dispute any religion's claim to have a monopoly on spirituality, the human spirit being a combination of mind-body-spirit drawing on nature and the kinder side off human nature for inspiration and, yes, a sense of spiritual well-being.

While I respect other religions, I often feel let down and ill-judged by those same religions that profess to have their roots in the principles of peace and love but are disinclined to apply either to anyone who cannot enter into the religious beliefs in which those principles operate. Yet, are we not all part of a common humanity, deserving better than to be judged on how far we can see eye to eye with one another on life and love?

Many religious people DO take people as they find them and DON'T presume to judge them according to their own  religious beliefs, and they are a credit to humanity, although it has been my personal experience, in all my 74 years, that they are in a minority,

As I have asked many times in blog posts /poems...whatever happened to agreeing to differ?

ALTERNATIVES

I looked for God in heaven
but did not find Him there,
looked again, in sun and rain
for Earth Mother

Some say it’s, oh, so pagan,
as bad as being gay;
I just see myself as someone  
looking nature’s way

God is many things to many,
interpreting His conditions
for the good of all humanity
according to its religions

The sun rises, sets, rises again,
and no one take issue
nor that moon and stars shine
or songbirds sleep as we do

Let nature sue for harmony,
hear our confessions,
and we feed less on acrimony
spread by world religions

To wake, sleep and wake again
may or may not imply rebirth
and, yes, each to his or her own
but we share a common earth


Who looks for God in heaven
and does not find Him there
has but to look in sun and rain
for Earth Mother

See, too, nature assert its power

where humankind gone too far



Copyright R. N. Taber 2012

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home