Edge OR Mind-Body-Spirit, the Ultimate Adventure

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

I posted today’s poem on YouTube some time ago yesterday while those of you who seem unable to access YouTube can also see the video below; the poem was written especially to accompany it; the alternative title was added later, on the subject of which several readers have asked why I "bother with alternative titles at all." All I can say is that a title is the reader's access point to a poem before he or she even reads a line; it sets not only the tone of a poem but gives it a framework of sorts in which the reader can freely move. Feedback often suggests that my first choice of title for a poem fails in ne or both respects so rather than revise the poem (although I do this, too, sometimes) I revise the access point. No poet should assume that how they access to a poem will necessarily apply to a reader; he or she needs consider critical feedback, and act on it as and when it feels appropriate.

For anyone interested, my YouTube channel is at:

http://www.youtube.com/rogerNtaber

Continuing my friend Graham’s video snapshot of Wiltshire, this is the second of three videos and poems relating to the Cheddar Gorge.

See how Graham ventures to the very edge at times while my poem attempts yet again to reconcile human condition and natural world.

Time and again we find ourselves at the edge of life, love, history ... even death ... and we need to call on all the power of positive thinking available to us to take us further or back, as the case may be ... or take a leap into the unknown now and then and trust our natural instincts to see us right. An artist friend once commented that life is all about being on the edge of a great adventure, one that the arts delight in taking us on. I get that, I really do. Any adventure will have its ups and downs; negotiating and surviving the latter on the best terms available to us is as important a feature of life as enjoying the former. Yes, I know only too well that hitting a rough patch is no 'adventure'; my friend would argue that it's getting through it where the 'adventure' lies if only retrospectively. 

Whatever, I discovered many years ago that positive thinking is a godsend, and encourages a sense of adventure through thick and thin. Better, I found out the hard way, to keep a sense of adventure than give up on ... whatever. 

Did I say it was easy?

EDGE 

Where nature goes,

the human mind would follow

to the end of time,

yet there are abysses in between

where even human will

can but gaze from the edge,

look down at the hem

of Earth Mother’s emerald gown,

across to where others

have gone for having dared dream

of dancing on Mount Parnassus

to the Pipes of Pan, glad to let sun,

moon and stars guide them

across bridges only the inner eye

can see that seeks out a light signalling

their finest poetry

Where nature goes,

the human body would follow

to the end of time,

yet there are seas to cross, mountains

to climb, gorge and valley

waiting to see how far a body will go,

how much battering it can take

until it has all but achieved its aim,

to kiss the frayed hem

of Earth Mother’s emerald gown,

only to discover that sun, moon,

and stars may yet refuse poor humanity

a final bonding with eternity

till we dare look down from its edge,

and finally acknowledge the home truths

half buried there

Where nature goes,

the human spirit would follow

to the end of time,

make merry with the its ghosts

haunting corners of the mind

we may well choose to avoid in case

the body cannot take the strain

of having to confess a great weariness

with keeping secrets, signing off

in peace and love while so frustrated

at not being able to make sense

of it all, sick of seeing humanity put down

at the hem of Earth Mother’s gown,

rummaging its frayed edges to retrieve

sufficient bits and pieces of ruined bridges

to rebuild one

Where mind, body and spirit work together,

we may yet save ourselves and each other?

Copyright R. N. Taber 2012

Note: This poem first appeared on the blog in 2012 under the title 'Edge'.