P-O-E-M-S, Life Forces OR Poetry, Landscape of the Arts

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

Today’s poem first appeared on the blog in 2015. I am only re-posting poems  that I have recently revised by changing the title, amending aspects of the poem itself if only slightly, or both; to explore the blog archives further, simply click on links you will find on the right hand side of any blog page.

Last year, a reader e-mailed to ask if I would mind if I recommend my blogs on social media. Not at all, be my guest., the more, the merrier. I should point out, though, that I no longer use social media myself. I found myself getting frustrated with a lot of 'fake news' and trolls objecting to the fact that I am gay yet write general as well as gay-interest poetry. (Do they really not appreciate there is more to anyone - whatever their gender, ethnicity or creed - than their sexuality?) I am not ashamed of being gay, but neither will I be stereotyped into any box, whatever shape or form. I am especially delighted, therefore, that some straight readers have taken the trouble to let me know they visit and enjoy my gay blog from time to time.]

Oh, and many thanks to those readers who have been in touch to say they have enjoyed some of the novels serialized on my fiction blog:

http://rogertaberfiction.blogspot.com

I hope to upload them as e-books at a later date. [I had such plans for retirement, including travel plans, but have felt overwhelmed from time to time by various health issues. There were initial problems with my prostate cancer during the early days of hormone therapy in 2011 followed by a bad fall the following year which left me with a smashed heel and unable to walk for months. Last year a venous ulcer left me housebound for months and I now need to wear compression stockings. However, I am on top of all that now if still experiencing some difficulty walking, even with the aid of my trusty walking stick, and get out and about as much as I can. More recently, of course, the Covid-19 coronavirus arrived, and I am but one among millions worn down by its consequences for all of us, although I am still alive so must be glad for that ... and count my blessings rather than whinge my woes. wry bardic grin

Meanwhile ...

There are few scenes more amazing about any landscape that particularly captures the imagination than sunbeams dancing on the back of a blast of rain.

They may well strike at the heart, those sunbeams, and open it up for nature, human nature and our own self-consciousness to make of their findings what they will ...

P-O-E-M-S, LIFE FORCES or POETRY, LANDSCAPE OF THE ARTS

Glorious landscape under a rainbow;

life-force sun come again, Apollo

re-asserting a hold on humanity as old 

as the evergreen slopes of Parnassus,

a landscape of life forces ever creating  

and re-creating us 

Birdsong, a bouquet of happy hearts

sending out a message

of hope and joy, offering sad souls

some respite from pain,

dreams to aspire, well worth recalling

where any rainbow’s turning

reveals no ages-old mythical ending

likely to help compensate

for some bleak, unfulfilling spring

(summer, too?) till autumn

takes its cue from our tears, prelude

to a wintry season of longing

for a (far) kinder spring and summer

than once came upon us

like opportunist magpies to egg-birds,

leaving a trail of blood

more likely even than Joseph’s coat

of, oh, so many colours

to be misunderstood by those of us

anxiously looking to the poetry

of a common humanity for ways

to re-invent ourselves 

Let cloud faces make what they may

of all they (and we) see, hear, say,

and do, if only for sharing in a feeling 

for the poetry of humanity, its arts,

sciences, and natural forces creating

and re-creating us 

Copyright R. N. Taber 2004; 2019

[Note: An earlier version of this poem under the title 'A Feeling for Poetry' appears in The Third Eye by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2004.]