To Apollo, Over

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

[Update. March 19th 2020]: The coronavirus, COVID 19, is spreading worldwide and various Governments feel obliged to take various emergency measures; it all smacks of Big Brother to me although needs must we act responsibly and conform to a whole new socio-cultural-political mind-set. Whatever, let's stay calm folks, use our common sense, trust our basic survival instincts and we will get though what appears to be the worst global crisis since the second world war. Remember that thousands of people die of flu every year; while this corona virus appears to be far more serious than an outbreak of influenza, we all need to stay positive and help each other as best we can. The sick  and elderly, are as always, the most vulnerable among us so we especially need to rally on their behalf, even if it means getting to know neighbours who are all but strangers. Me? I will be 75 later this year and have been living with prostate cancer since 2011. I live alone, but will stay in touch with friends by phone if mobility becomes severely restricted by any temporary legislation. Meanwhile, I continue to take each day as it comes, and hope for the best ...]

Meanwhile ...

Old gods, new ways, first dawn, last sunset…world ending with a bang or a whimper, I wonder?

Nature may well hold most if not all the answers, but wears them close to its heart, and who can blame it given humankind’s compulsion for getting its own way no matter who gets hurt or what damage done in the process…?

Nature, of course, will endure long after humanity has failed to learn from its worst mistakes; one of these being underestimating climate change for which we, of course, are (all) ultimately responsible.

As for humankind, we can but trust those faceless mandarins stalking the corridors of power across the world may yet be named and shamed, replaced by those whose feeling for humanity and humankind’s obsession with pastures new is not above demonstrating some old-fashioned common sense.

TO APOLLO, OVER 

Broken statues in the dust,
marking many a historic dawn,
shooting long shadows 

Far, far, these shadows fly
across our much-damaged land
like many arrows 

Into a poor scholar’s dugout
an arrow makes its presence felt
at Apollo’s early rising 

Red sun shining on our dust,
revealing broken statues weeping
and bleeding for us

 Copyright R. N. Taber 1999; 2020

 [Note: This poem has been slightly revised from an earlier version that first appeared in the poetry magazine Meridian (1999) and subsequently in Love and Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2001]