A Feeling for Crosswords OR Not every Answer is the Right One

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

Just as completing a crossword requires that we take our cue from each and every clue it provides, it could be said that saving the planet asks that we follow much the same procedure; first, though, we need to properly read and make sense of the clues before we act on any cues which we are authoritatively reassured are most likely to see what we have started through to a successful end.

 A FEELING FOR CROSSWORDS or NOT EVERY ANSWER IS THE RIGHT ONE

Uneasy sirs a Muse
in the role of cynic, so many turnings
to choose from
and who’s to say any one kinder
than another,
left to toss and turn on a hotbed
of indecision
and confusion, asking of native imagination
but to show me some compassion? 

Left tossing and turning
like a whore harbouring even more regrets
than tales she might care
to share with tabloids peddling
their shoddy goods
over a quality marmalade spread,
courtesy of higher
and lower elements of a global consciousness
sucking up to (Value-for-Money?) 

Still tossing and turning,
when not fawning over soft soap politics
or such watchpersons
insisting humility but a primitive fantasy,
especially concerning
a public judiciary last heard observing
over its favourite breakfast 
how we needs must balance morality’s scales 
against any need to improve  sales 

Oh, the tossing and turning
over the chances of winning The Lottery,
sorting the Irish Question
for all time at two-across, five down
on the beast
of a Rush Hour train about as likely
to save the planet
as see those campaigning for a cleaner, safer one
arriving for work on time 

More tossing and turning,
for a so-weary and inept Muse struggling
with a poetry needing
to relate how life’s more than a show
put on in passing
by over-rated players too busy courting
media attention
and telling the world what it most wants (?) to hear
to make sure it has a future 

Uneasy stirs a Muse
feeling lost on Platform One,
last train long gone,
and not a clue as to what’s going on,
until younger voices
assure the would-be passenger
that the timetable
is out of date, revised late, but better a late than never
a stitch in time, whatever...? 

Less tossing and turning
for a Muse’s growing belief
in young people
of the world not only insisting it turn
over a new leaf,
but gradually converting doubters
to their way
of thinking, old guards all but reconciled to its changing,
a better future beckoning 

Copyright R. N. Taber 2001 rev. 2021

[Note: First composed in 1984, an earlier version of this poem appears under the title 'A Feeling for Crosswords' in my first collection,  Love and Human Remains by R. N. Taber,, Assembly Books, 2001.] RT