Natural Instinct

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

Today’s poem first appeared in Poetry Monthly International in 2009. Sadly, the magazine has since closed after a very successful run for some years as Poetry Monthly. The poem subsequently appeared in my collection the following year. [I often add alternative titles to blog entries to help facilitate searches.]

Whatever our socio-cultural-religious, political or even sexual persuasion, our lives will be found sorely wanting unless we allow for and respect certain points of view and aspects of Belief  (or non-Belief) that are different from, even hostile to our own.

Yes, we should condemn criminal/terrorist violence and any that seek to force others to adopt a twisted ideology tailored to their own distorted view of raison d’être, but there is a world of difference between engaging with and relating to raison d’être in (many) different ways and upholding a distorted view of it.

As I have said before on my blogs, our differences do not make us different, only human, and to be human is to understand and act upon a sense of compassion; nor should compassion (ever) be mistaken for being patronizing or showing pity, a form of weakness or some unwelcome intruder bent on having sport with us…but needs to be acknowledged and accepted for what it is, a life force that requires nurturing since, without it, humankind loses much if not all of its humanity.

Oh, and how to nurture? Well, could it be perhaps that where there’s a common socio-cultural-religious- political will, there really is a way? Fat chance, I dare say, but if enough people make enough ripples…one day, who knows?  We all have a duty of care towards each other, always have had, and even if not especially in the world today, looking out for each other across divisions, not creating them, leading by example as and when we can, and trusting others may yet follow. Yes, we are only human, but is it really too much to ask...of all of us, not just those who care because they are naturally caring people and/or they work with the emergency services.

This poem is a kenning, or 'Who am I?' poem as the kenning is often called.

NATURAL INSTINCT

Invariably, I am tested to tears

where fear, resentment, blame, even hate

would have me take on the persona

of some dark angel, turning its back on all

it holds dear, clawing its way

under the skin of whom it holds responsible

for those self-same tears

shed for a love meaning more, far more

than any free fall horror

Invariably, I am all but torn apart

where a native sense of right and wrong

weigh down the scales of justice

on a side I would much prefer not to be,

taking the human heart to places

it would much prefer not to go, carried

in spite of itself by a relentless

undertow of fiercely conflicting emotions

preventing rescue

Invariably, I reach out for hands

stretching from a shadowy shore so near

yet, oh, so far…and it comforts me

in my distress to know there is goodness

and hope where the human heart

beats with a will to overcome its worst,

demanding we do our best, despite

a tearful mist blurring the sight, sure threat

even to love’s lasting light

I am that kinder aspect of human nature
concerned with due care and nurture

Copyright R. N. Taber 2009; 2017

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears under the title 'Only Human' in On the Battlefields of Love by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010.]