A
reader has asked me to repeat the link to my YouTube channel where I read poems
over videos shot my best friend, Graham; he is a graphic designer and we are
hoping to exhibit some of my poems written during the C-19 pandemic along with appropriate
graphic art-work. Fingers crossed …
Sadly,
for various reasons, we have been unable to create new additions for some time:
Another
reader asks how I can “… write about a ‘common humanity’ when so many of us are
as different as chalk from cheese.” Well as I have continued to put it to blog
readers for a good 10 years now, our differences do not make us different, only
human; nor would humanity be so divided were more people and societies only
more willing to agree to differ and find (other) common grounds for making
peace instead of war.
Nothing
exacerbates differences of opinion than being under stress so I suspect there
is many a household across the world struggling with divisions erupting left,
right and centre among family members and any friends whom social distancing
allows them to see. A Muslim neighbour commented just the other day to the
effect that in spite of all the horror inflicted by the C-19 coronavirus “We
are all in it together, a Family of Man for once instead of a bunch of stereotypes
causing more pain over a far longer period of time than any
virus.” I get it, don’t you?
Hopefully,
once we have either defeated or at least learned to control the spread of C-19
(rather than its controlling us) many if not most of us will look
back on what continues to run like something out of a horror story and remember
how we were, indeed, all of us in it together, regardless of ethnicity,
culture, religious or (yes) sexual persuasion. One in the eye for the bigots
perhaps, enough to cause a change of heart? Yes, well, they do say hope springs
eternal …
Lines
from a 19th century novel seem to me to be as appropriate now as it was then:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of
times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the
epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light,
it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of
despair.”
- Charles
Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
How can I possibly
suggest that this could, in any way shape or form, be interpreted as ‘the best
of times’? Well, we are all in it together, aren’t we? The pandemic is the
worst crisis the world has had to face since World War 2; we pulled together
then, too, and this time Germany is not the enemy, but pulling together with
us; a common humanity that, hopefully, will continue to work together long
after the Covid -19 coronavirus is a thing of our distant past.
STRESSED OUT or ENGAGING WITH COVID-19
Another
day,
rise
‘n’ shine, willpower
touching
base
with
an alter ego
that’s
long since lost sight
of
any get-up-go
Another
day
of
waking up to memory
playing
tricks on me;
Where
is whatever,
and
who moved it anyway?
(Not
me, surely?)
Another
day
on
old Forget-me-Not lane
(a
wistful sigh);
logging
on to images
that
would mean the world
should
I recall why
Another
day
of
shopping locally, list left
at home (of course);
chatting
with folks
whom
I do my best to place,
for
better, for worse
Another
day,
walking
a few laps of the park
if
only to keep fit;
social
distancing
making
sure of no seat in sight
for
tired feet
No
park keeper;
C-19
guidelines abused by egos
guaranteed
to
defy regulations
likely
to cause inconvenience
and
hurt pride
Another
day
of
people being people, all things
left
unequal
but
for mind-body spirit’s
being
equal to the task of rising
above
it all
Copyright
R. N. Taber 2020
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