Taking Stock OR A Sense of Perspective

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

I am not happy with the new blogger and wasn't when I was invited to try it some time ago. I had hoped we bloggers might  be given a choice  to continue in the old format, but it appears not, so I may not be blogging here for much longer. It is typical - in my personal experience - that so many people and organizations, even some shops, give little thought to how many older people like myself  - who do not have i-phones or android and struggle with IT - are  easily confused, especially those of us living alone and have been struggling with other health issues long before the Covid-19 pandemic. However, I will see how I get on with the new format when needs must ... but am not optimistic. Meanwhile, I will continue in the old format while I still can ...

Today's poem last appeared on the blog in 2014.

People often tell me that as we grow old(er) we spend more time looking back because there are fewer reason to look forward, and it is this ‘negativity’ that  drags us down and others with us. I don’t agree. Looking back can be inspirational, stirring mind and spirit as once it was stirred by the sheer energy and imagination of earlier years, to that sense of spirituality intrinsic to nature and human nature and which may or may not have anything to do with religion.

True, taking stock of one's life can be a scary business; we invariably find self and life wanting. Yet, it can be a comfort too, reminding ourselves that we are but human and our failures are as much down to that as our successes. It reminds us, too, that we are as we are, live as we live…and there is time yet to open our eyes to more of the same (and its multiple variations) before they close forever upon one perspective at least on the art of being human.

I wrote this poem (a villanelle) in a reflective mood on Brighton pier. As regular readers will know, I have been going to Brighton since I was a very young child and my mother would take me during school holidays. I will be 75 later this year so have a lot of taking stock to do from time to time.

It is so true that taking stock of our lives may not always be as rewarding a process as we might like, but it can (if we let it)  help us remember who we are, how we got this far, and even (maybe) lend us the insight to right a few wrongs, make good some mistakes, identify and work through the fears as well as the more positive life forces that drive us ...

This poem is a villanelle.

TAKING STOCK or A SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE

On Brighton pier,

empathy with a feisty sea,

a lifetime to share

Child of yesteryear

spotted waving cheerfully

on Brighton pier

Mist starts to clear,

waves splashing excitedly,

a lifetime to share

Cloud faces as queer

as folk, smile convincingly

on Brighton pier

Listen, and I can hear

a world in perfect harmony,

a lifetime to share

Of life-death, no fear,

for engaging with positivity

on Brighton pier,

a lifetime to share

Copyright R. N. Taber, 2005; 2018

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in A Feeling for the Quickness of Time by

R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2005.]

Lewes, Landscape of Imagination

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

This poem is the direct result of a visit to the historic Sussex town of Lewes. As always, my friend Graham Collett shot and edited the video and I wrote a poem to accompany it. I have posted the video/poem on my You Tube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/rogerNtaber

or access direct at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6LfIGu7gd4

or see below

It was during the latter days of last summer that Graham  and I visited Lewes. We only had time to visit the castle and Anne of Cleves’ House, and we thought you might enjoy sharing the experience.

The town is the location of several significant historic buildings, including Lewes Castle and a sixteenth-century timber-framed Wealden hall house known as Anne of Cleves House because it was given to her as part of her divorce settlement from Henry VIII; although there is no historical evidence to show that she never lived there, she may well have visited from time to time.  

Both Anne of Cleves' House and the Castle are owned and maintained by the Sussex Archaeological Society.

LEWES, LANDSCAPE OF IMAGINATION

Looking for creative therapy?

Visit the landscape of imagination,

take a journey into history;

Lewes, spoils of Norman invasion,

Courtesy of William, Conqueror

to William de Warenne and spouse

on overcoming Saxon resistance,

a castle there to build on the Ouse,

dedicated to St Pancras,

in remembrance of a child martyr,

executed for his faith

Pass through the Barbican Gate,

get a feel for olde England surrounds;

a Motte and Bailey castle,

later fortified with stone, the better

to defend against invasion;

few richer spoils of time to be found,

firing the imagination,

filling inner eye and ear with sights 

and sounds of generations

ghosting a courtyard dominated

by all-seeing towers

Climb, climb, a winding stair

of stone, labour of love, chiselled

out of the history

of olde England, witness to battles

and executions,

as well as celebrations, successes

and failures of its tenants

over centuries of war and peace;

echoes of laughter and tears

haunting East Sussex surrounds

for a thousand years

Lewes, meeting its past head-on,

where Anne of Cleves, and entourage

loyal to a discarded queen

may well have sought out the peace

of Tudor England’s green

but troubled land, under a fickle king

so desperate for a son

he wed unwisely (six times, no less)

letting ego-led lust have its head,

while Anne kept hers, even acquired

a house in Lewes

Time, though, will wait for nothing

and no one, least of all a poem passing

through its eternal passages

of fame and fortune, secrets and lies,

honourable deaths, executions

history may well attempt to justify

and scholars make excuses

while poets love to visit time and again,

bring to the landscapes

of imagination, inner eye and ear,

open to whatever…

Day done, history’s curtain drawn

across the windows of minds anxious

to chew on history’s bones,

reach their own conclusions as to how

past into present excavations

of various ruins and other testaments

to history’s own, for better or worse,

invest ghosts the ilk of Anne of Cleves

and such tenants as its castle

once let live, love, make merry and die,

with a singular peace…

Lewes

Copyright R. N. Taber 2016

Note: I had problems uploading the video to You Tube so you may need to watch it again if your first attempt resulted in any distorted images.