Getting the Better of Beasties

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

An experienced store manager was made redundant some months ago as a direct result Covid-19 fallout on the High Street. Having made countless job applications I vain, he was all but despairing of ever working again until his wife suggested he try something completely new. Sceptical, he took her at her word, has just started working for a security firm and is enjoying it, not least because his take-home pay is more than in his previous job.  Some might say he was lucky while others might feel inclined to award him full-marks for his perseverance and willingness to take on something new after 10+ years in a job he loved and expected to see him through to retirement. 

Amongst other things, the coronavirus pandemic is attacking everyone’s self-confidence; none of us know what’s around the next corner. But, do we ever know? Come what may, we can but trust in the love in us - of which every heartbeat is a constant reminder - and the native resilience of a combined mind-body-spirit to see us through, for better, for worse. Trite, it might sound, but I have experienced the truth of it more than once in what will be all of 75 years in December. Seventy-five years in which I have been privileged to meet many ordinary men and women battling more odds than any poet can imagine, and making of their lives something that may rarely if ever made any headlines, but of which they can be justly proud. (No headlines, perhaps, but relayed in the spirit of many a poem and other art forms for centuries …) 

GETTING THE BETTER OF BEASTIES

Beastie is scary for any of us,
a shadowy figure obstructing our way
towards a better, kinder place,
where only kind ghosts go a-haunting,
no blots on our landscape
perpetually taunting us for past mistakes
and missed opportunities,
family, friends estranged if for no reason other
than failing to talk to each other 

Beastie knows us all too well,
aware that we’re struggling to rise above
its persistent call, ever foiled
by human nature’s natural predilection
for finding excuses, resisting
any positive direction it needs must take
for fear of failing when push
comes to shove, decisions left hanging on a rack,
for each step forward, another back 

Beastie, though, has its own fears,
not least the capacity of the human heart
to urge we put away our tears,
take a chance on seeing whatever it may be
we so need to see through,
do our best, no one has the right to ask more,
and even should we lose a fight
we’ll be sure to chance much the same another day
given human nature’s sense of fair play 

Wherever Beastie exposed as close kin to Self-doubt,
it proves no match for a resilient mind-body-spirit

Copyright R. N. Taber 2020