http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
[
Update: April 15 2017]: It is Easter, when we should all be thinking of love and peace towards each other instead of the threat of a nuclear confrontation between North Korea and the United States of America. I can't recall anything quite like this since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. I am am reminded by the song, Where Have All The Flowers Gone, that I first heard sung by Peter, Paul and Mary in 1962 although I confess I prefer the Joan Baez version (1967). When, indeed, will the conveniently anonymous yet all-encompassing 'they' ever learn? I love the song, not least because it made me think, just as it did a few minutes ago when I listened to it on You Tube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCAmQkmBrj8
Now, some readers find it irritating that I link to historical as well as newer posts/poems while feedback suggests that others take a genuine interest. Possibly, if my blogs/poems survive my eventual passing from this world, posterity, too, may take an interest? [I like to think so, but...who knows?]
Now, the poem below was written in 2002 but could have been written at any time in any century; an
earlier version also appeared in an
anthology - Daily Reflections, Triumph House [Forward Press] 2003 -
and Ygdrasil, an on-line poetry journal, April
2005.
Some
readers have questioned my use of the word 'faith' in the last stanza. Well, as I have often said before on my blogs, faith embraces a whole spectrum of feeling and thought. Religion does not have a monopoly on faith even with a capital 'F'; I chose to put mine in nature even as a child.
Yes, The kind of spiritual strength that religious faith lends is important to many people and we should respect that. No less important to those like myself, though, is the sense of spirituality we take from nature. More importantly still, we need to have faith in
ourselves...or how else can we expect it of others?
Where progress is a tool which we shape past, present and future, we need to make sure we get it
right. and compose a living poem to last, not an epitaph for the wind to wear down until
no one can read what it says, or wants to…
It may be true that money talks, but it doesn't have the wit that words do. (Now, there is potential for a war of words second to none...)
This poem
is a villanelle.
THE WORLD
THIS WEEKEND
In
pastures green or desert sand,
they
haunt and pursue us,
history's
lessons unlearned
Fear, much like a dead man’s hand,
appears
sound, washed clean,
in
pastures green or desert sand
Words, drawn swords to the land,
ripping
out its spleen;
history's
lessons unlearned
Love, a
well-worn but infinite strand
of hope
on the world scene
in
pastures green or desert sand
Time, a chance to
make a stand
against
war and pain,
history's
lessons unlearned?
Faith
would keep us safe and sound,
washing raw wounds clean;
in
pastures green or desert sand,
history's
lessons unlearned
Copyright R. N. Taber 2002; 2016
[Note: An
earlier version of this poem appears in First Person
Plural by R. N. Taber,
Assembly Books, 2002.]