On Reading the Hand that Writes us Up

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

The Climate Change Summit in Glasgow has had a lot to say on the subject, but one cannot help wonder how many will translate into meaningful action. Even so, Hope springs eternal...

As important as weather patterns,  we need to keep a close eye on human behavioural patterns and not underestimate how they are affected by changes in our personal lives that are constantly taking place, not always for the better. 

The coronavirus pandemic has affected all us and  humanity will need all the life forces it can call upon and sustain during and after it has run its course; the effects on its collective mental as well as physical health will, of course, vary from person to person, country to country, but of one thing we can be sure - nothing will ever be quite the same again, whatever...

ON READING THE HAND THAT WRITES US UP

There's a hand that caresses the first seeds of spring
and bids them grow;
it moves among summer corn in time for harvesting,
courtesy of Apollo

Where autumn's leaves making ready for its turning,
it bestows a blessing;
when winter brings us to its knees, of life despairing,
it guides us into spring

Where we run the gamut of love, hate, peace and war,
find, too, Earth Mother;
better to have its caresses smooth over a troubled brow,
rescue the Here-and-Now 

The question arises, dare we bite the hand that feeds us,
face the consequences
or do we accept it in a spirit of goodwill to all humanity,
put aside our differences?

Beware, or hands rocking our cradle may yet let it drop,
our world breaking up;
it's to read the hand that's writing us up we need to learn
or else... Armageddon?

Copyright R. N. Taber 2012; rev. 2021

[Note: The original version of this poem was written in 2009 and appears in my collection Tracking the Torchbearer, Assembly Books, 2012'; it has only recently been significantly revised.] RT