Looking to the Future

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

Here’s wishing everyone as Happy (and Healthy) a New Year as mind-body-spirit can magic up for us... in the spirit of Togetherness...with more than a little help from loved ones and friends.

Hugs,

Roger

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

So, we begin another year
as well as another day, looking ahead
with mixed feelings
of happiness and hope, yet dread too
for wondering whether or not
the coming months well see the end
of Covid-19, who may get
to re-enter the Arts and Politics of Life
and who will not...?

New Year celebrations muted
for many of us, both Delta and Omicron
variants of coronavirus
raging all around the world, striking fear
here, there, everywhere, in all
walks of life, opinions varying as to just
when and how science-led data
will help restore return us a greater security,
now... or never?

There is a sickness in the world
other than Covid-19, not least a beast
that is jealousy-prejudice-hate;
if we cannot ever be rid of the species
for all time, we can at least
try to educate and inform, let them know
who should know better
that, as a common humanity, we all need to get
our acts together

We can but trust mind--body-spirit
to make sense of the world, encourage us
in playing our part
to make the worst (far) better, to darkness
bring the lights of hope and love,
not play ourselves false or wish others ill,
nor let our differences divide us,
but listen to Reason and Conscience, let them
help us find Peace

 Copyright R. N. Taber, 2022

Listening in, Anyone?

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

While many of my poems are concerned with LGBT issues, others could easily have been posted on my general poetry blog. Oh, and why not? As I make the point time and again, there is more to all of us - LGBT or straight - than our sexuality. Just as a person is a person is a person so, too, a poem is a poem is a poem, to take as we find, no rush to judgement or totally misleading stereotypes affecting how we receive either person or poem. (Yes, well, hope springs eternal...)

Given the title of the poem, I should perhaps emphasise - as a significantly if only partially deaf person - that everyone has an 'inner' ear responding to our sensibilities and imagination rather than sounds.

I have been so pleased by the number of readers dipping into both blogs since I have been posting from the archives of one to the other recently.

Expect the occasional new poem/s in 2020, while some of you may like to explore the archives for either or both poetry blogs; these are listed and can be accessed on the right of any blog entry. Oh, and if you ever feel like sending the link to anyone you know who enjoys poetry, be my guest, and many thanks.

Compiling revised editions of my poetry collections will take time, but I will let you know as I complete each one and publish it online.

Happy New Year everyone, and many thanks for your support over the last 10 years.

LISTENING IN , ANYONE?

Another day, another year
as hope springs eternal, catching every tear
that falls, echoing every cry
from the heart for us to treat each other
better than either history
or contemporaneity attempts to remind anyone
who’s listening in

Another day, another year
of an everyday striving to at least appear
at one with a world
tearing us apart with its relentless aggression
against those unable to fit
into our preferred window on life, love, equality
in this or that society

Another day, another year,
pulling mind-body-spirit together, the better
to take each rise and fall
as it comes, keep looking on the bright side
of life, no matter how
we read graffiti on our walls, the good-bad-ugly
sides of human history

Another day, another year,
resolutions made in good faith upon the strokes
of midnight, ear bashing
those with the best of intentions among us
on our way to the bar,
a licence to kill time before it gets to exposing us
for wishful thinkers

Another day, another year,
and more of life's epic poetry writing up humanity,
(warts ‘n’ all, no one spared)
spelling out expectations for future generations,
assuming it’s not too late
to wipe Graffiti Earth clean, rework personal space,
let us breathe again


Copyright R. N. Taber, 2019

[Note: This poem appears on both poetry blogs.]

More of the Same (Unless, What ... ?)

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

[Update, December 31st 2018: I hope  you all enjoy my posts and poems as  much as I enjoy writing them. I have not been in good health for some years, and at 73 there's neither time nor room for much improvement. Even so, I keep looking on the bright side of life. The blogs distract me from the likes of prostate cancer and arthritis, and help me to feel more in touch with the world since I've been less able to get out and about in it. A huge thank you to everyone for staying with me; the sum total of pageviews for both poetry blogs has now passed 300,000.]

Here’s a BIG thank you to all my readers. When I started writing up the blogs, I hoped to reach a few thousand people, but both blogs have now had 53,000+ pageviews since Google started collecting statistics in May 2010; feedback suggests many of these are regular readers.

Christmas, light years away already. Let us hope 2014 will be a better year for us all. Sadly, for many of us, I doubt whether it will feel much like we are emerging from recession and hardship for some months, even years yet.

All we can do is find a bright side and focus on that as we try to make the best of things rather than dwell on the worst. Despite having to contend with regular bouts of depression, it is something I have always tried to do…with varying degrees of success (and failure).

Did I say it was easy?

May we all find peace and love...this year, and always...keeping mind and heart open to all things and all people.[Well, as far as some people will let us anyway.]

MORE OF THE SAME (UNLESS, WHAT ... ?)

A new year beckons across the sad remains

of a Christmas past its use-by date,

discarded wrapping paper a pretty metaphor

for token gestures, world over

Our shame, its magic fading, oh, so quickly

to an everyday ordinariness;

(they fade too soon, the laughter and songs

of a world coming together.)

Even so, the frailest things may last forever

once touched by love;

so say bodies living (and dying) on our streets

here, there, world over ...

Wherever a heart beats in time with another

love will find a way

(even if means heaping starker choices upon us

than any Holy Books ... ?)

Needs must, recycling pretty wrapping paper

and tearing a strip off humanity

whenever it fails to teach its children respect

for our differences, world over

Copyright R. N. Taber 2012

The Heart Expects

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

I wish you all peace and love for this and each New Year as they come along. In the absence of peace, may love comfort you, and see you through to better times.

Oh, and in the (apparent) absence of love…?

Think again, for love isn’t just for lovers; it comes in all shapes and forms so look harder, and perhaps closer to home …

THE HEART EXPECTS

Old year done and dusted,

a new one begins;

troubles, regrets, even sins

like blades of grass

beneath a layer of snow,

kept by nature from

growing before their time

till spring again...

its bitter-sweet harvest

of expectation, sown

and nurtured with loving care,

only to be found wanting,

an uncertain future left to face,

caught fast between rock

and hard place, confronted

with love v life under

threat of this or that heaven’s

well-honed knife

Laughter lines exposed

for half lies…

a whitening of the hair

as snowflakes

falling on a looking glass,

one for each trouble,

regret, even sin, conspiring

with Earth Mother

to let the grass grow again,

inspired to sing

about love, peace, joy,

and harmony

of sorts among nature’s own,

while confronting

yet another year of irony

heaped upon irony

by an inclusive humanity

deserving better

Copyright R. N. Taber 2008

New Year, New Hope, Old Story

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

Today’s poem first appeared in Poetry Monthly International (sadly, since discontinued) in 2008 prior to its inclusion in my collection. It seems an appropriate enough poem for today since this evening will be New Year’s Eve.

Let’s just hope the celebrations will not be premature and that the 2014 brings more than just hope for world peace and a genuine sense of reconciliation between its divided socio-cultural-religious groups; a recognition, too, of basic human rights for everyone regardless of colour, creed, sex or sexuality, especially in those areas of the world and its societies that encourage if not legislate a policy of persecution.

NEW YEAR, NEW HOPE, OLD STORY

Bursting into the New Year

with a sing-song and a prayer

for peace across the world

Toasting our tomorrows

by way of drowning sorrows

for not letting go of pain

Putting on a smile, laughing

at sick jokes, better than crying

for the price of our mistakes

Brave New Year resolutions

little more than poor solutions

to centuries-old problems

Humankind’s record so poor,

less likely to make peace than war

if good at saying prayers…

Higher and farther they fly,

fine words across a New Year sky,

only to repeating history...

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in On the Battlefields of Love by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010]