L-I-F-E, Poems for every Occasion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
For many years, I tried to think of myself as an agnostic because I could not get my head around the idea of a personified God. At the same time, I found myself developing a very close relationship with the natural world that was of a very spiritual nature.
In (much) later years, I would discover and identify with Pantheism. In my early 60’s by now, I was finally able to relate to the sheer poetry of a spirituality in me that I never found in either the Christianity in which I was raised of any other of the world’s religions.
At long last, I feel comfortable with a sense of spirituality, less of an outsider for subscribing to no religion, while continuing to nurture a sense of purpose in life that, for many years, had eluded me except in so far as to put it down to poetic whim.
As to whether or not I am a good poet is less relevant than how poetry brings me closer and closer to nature even though I rarely even get to its glorious landscapes now due to mobility problems. On my wall, I have a painting of woodlands I used to explore as a child growing up in Kent. I often take imaginary strolls in that painting, recapture a spirit of halcyon days that has never (quite) left me even during the worst moments in my life.
Pantheists believe that God is nature rather than its creator, which may well explain a Poetry of Spirituality that has always seen me through good and bad times, taken me to the proverbial Edge and back time and again.
I reason not the need; that a spiritual need in me is answered in this way is enough to keep me looking on the bright(er) side of life, its pitfalls notwithstanding..
The words of a vicar's wife, a work colleague who told me she enjoyed working with me and was sorry I would go to hell (for being gay, I presume?) lost the power to hurt me long ago.
If God is nature, could that be why nature does not discriminate in the way many humans (still) do?
L-I-F-E, POEMS FOR EVERY OCCASION
There
are trees whose leaves
speak
with the voices of poets, reciting summers,
autumns, even lonely winters
when
only robins likely to linger long enough
to
promise such regeneration as may yet get to see
its
poets live and let live
There
are birds come to nest
and
teach their young such poetry of their home-tree
as
will see them through its seasons,
encourage
them to explore both heavens above,
and
earth below, get to know what it takes for kith, kin
and
poetry to survive
There
are poets whose hearts
are
given freely to an Earth Mother, anxious to be
put
through the very motions
of
each season as it comes, share the joys
we
take in life, and such sorrow as sure to follow death
as
birdsong on human ears
There has always been poetry
as
close to nature as human nature, anxious to see
them
working in such harmony
as
gives conservation and preservation of species
due
priority, whatever it takes to be sure Earth’s poetry
is
more than a rehearsal
Rehearsal
for what, who knows? A good start may well be
to
listen and learn more from (all) life-poetry...?
Copyright R. N. Taber 2021
Labels: common humanity, global consciousness, history, human nature, human spirit, life forces, love, nature, personal space, poetry, positive thinking, regeneration, religion, society, spirituality