http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
Preparing
a new collection of poems, as I am, is proving more stressful than ever before, probably
because - like most if not all of us - I am already stressed out by the Covid-19
pandemic. I keep coming across poems that are fine as far as they go … but strike
me as not going quite far enough in saying what they mean to convey. Today’s
(considerably revised) poem is such a case. I hope you will enjoy it as a poem offering food
for thought, while bearing in mind that the poet’s own thought processes are as
if feeling their way through an early morning mist right now.
I confess
I’ve always had a great affinity with mist, a curiosity with and certain expectations
for whatever it may reveal, especially as it lifts like the stage curtain on a
play. Invariably, we human beings will need prompting, by mind-body-spirit no
less, in whatever drama places us there in the first place, whether it be romance,
tragedy, comedy, tragi-comedy, wicked satire … or a combination of all three.
Most likely, the latter, bearing in mind the various parts we needs must play,
each and every one of us comprising an all-star cast in a common humanity, called
upon to play our part by a variety of life forces - love, hate, jealousy,
regret, joy, grief, pain … to name but a few. That’s life. We can but address its
various ways and means in an even greater variety of circumstances if only to have
alter-ego whispering in our ear that we did well, but could have done better.
SEEING
RED
Shades of
red, colouring global reasoning
with a
world of differences;
shades of
red, colouring needs to weather
climate
change;
shades of
red, confronting world religions,
denying political
agendas;
As I
opened my eyes, I’d see but red, colour
of lives
left bleeding;
as I
opened my heart, I’d see that same red,
the agony
of missing you;
though I
open my mind, more shades of red,
chasing
lost opportunities
Red, too,
shades of last sunsets waiting upon
all human
choices;
red also,
on the flag that covered your coffin,
bugler, playing
you home;
red,
these lips that will never kiss yours again,
yet
reassure generations
Shades of
red, nurturing a growing disillusion
concerning
‘society’
Shades of
red, humanity’s blatant stereotyping
its natural
diversity;
Shades of
red, confronting a history of shaping
a much-divided humanity
Now, as I
open my eyes, I still see red, a colour
of lost
horizons, yes,
but opening
up my heart to a splendid rainbow,
the sum
of its colours
declaring
an affinity with an only too human rage
to live,
and win through it all
Copyright
R.N. Taber 2007, 2020,
[Note: An
earlier version of this poem appears under the title ‘Red’ in Accomplices to
Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007.]
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