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].

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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, 21 May 2020

At Home

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

As the  C-19 coronavirus pandemic persists, albeit.(hopefully) on the wane, many if not most of us are struggling to cope on a daily basis, none more so than those who have lost loved ones; grief is hard enough to bear at the best of times, but as things are, even family members are not always able to attend either morgue or funeral to say their last goodbyes. I understand that, and yet do we ever need to say goodbye to love? I think not, for love never dies.

I often refer to a 'posthumous consciousness' in my blogs and poems; some people prefer the word 'ghosts'; it is more than a form of remembrance, but a continuum wherein 'live' contact is made between the those who have lost each other through death or whatever. Where love is concerned, this has to be a positive thing although it has to be said that not all our ghosts mean well.

Love, as I have said many times (I am often hauled over proverbial coals for repeating myself!)love comes in all shapes and sizes; platonic or sexual, people or places, pets, even possessions of sentimental value ... They often influence how we behave and think, often without our even realising it. The presence of people in our consciousness, though, we can usually recognise and acknowledge if only to ourselves; I say 'usually' because complete strangers of whom we have little or no memory, cam also play a part in hoe we live our lives by deeds done or words said that may well not have seemed so important at the time ...

The human consciousness is a continuum, and mortality does not change that for any of us, regardless of who or where we are in the world, whether we subscribe to any religion or not; is is one reason why I often refer to a 'common humanity' in various blog entries and poems, for which I am often taken to task,not least because I am gay, and many people cannot relate to that; it is not a question of relating to any person's particular qualities, though, but to the person as a whole and/ or the whole they personify. Far too often, human nature will home in on a part or parts of a person's character or personality, take that for its whole and judge it accordingly. Perhaps that is why humanity is so divided, in so far as we make too many assumptions about people in a favourite pastime for many that involves rushing to judgement.

Whoever, wherever we are in the world and whatever our socio-cultural-religious or, yes, sexual persuasion, we all deserve better than to be subjected to a rush to judgement that may well not even come close to the truth. Truth, too, dare I say, cannot always be assumed to be absolute; it, too, comes in various shapes and forms depending on from whose perspective we are looking at it?


AT HOME

The day you died,
I so yearned to follow you
across time and space,
create our own special place
in the universe

Yet, even as I wept,
my tears like your kisses
on my face,
created our own special place
in the universe 

Like fresh spring rain,
tears and kisses conspired
with love and death
to return its ghosts to Earth
in living verse

Yes, even as I sleep,
my tears, like your kisses
on my face,
make ourselves at home
in the universe

Copyright R. N. Taber 2013; 2020

[Note: This poem also appears on my gay-interest poetry blog today.] RT

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