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