A Poet's Blog: Roger N.Taber shares his thoughts & poems...

Thoughts and observations by English poet Roger N. Taber, a retired librarian and poet-novelist.- "Ethnicity, Religion, Gender, Sexuality ... these are but parts of a whole. It is the whole that counts." RNT [NB While I have no wish to create a social network, I will always reply to critical emails about my poetry. Contact: rogertab@aol.com].

Name:
Location: London, United Kingdom

Sadly, a bad fall in 2012 has left me with a mobility problem, and being diagnosed with prostate cancer the same year hasn't helped, but I get out and about with my trusty walking stick as much as I can, take each day as it comes and try to keep looking on the bright(er) side of life. Many of my poems reflect the need to nurture a positive-thinking mindset whatever life throws at us.

Friday, 13 March 2020

Autobiography of a Master Builder

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

In the history of humankind, everyone has a conscience or at least an awareness of something for which they deserve to feel a sense of regret, even guilt; whether or not we take much if any notice, of course, is something else altogether. Anyone who chooses to ignore matters of conscience - or block them out, as the case may be -  may well mean they will carry on regardless, even 're-offend'.

We can never quite be rid of any form of self-awareness (and alter ego), whether it be for better or worse; such, perhaps, are the ghost selves that haunt us, manifestations of all we see as mistakes we have made or whatever ...?


History and personal history all have their ghosts; we need to acknowledge these, if only to enlist their aid to prevent either repeating itself, except in a good way, for we are all born into innocence and goodness although fortunate, indeed, is he or she who resists any temptation to stray in an opposite direction, for whatever reason, as we tackle the ups and downs of life on an everyday basis.


We can, all of us, but do our best not to stray, and if we cannot forgive ourselves for such times as we do, we can at least allow our ghosts to remind us not to do so again; in a sense, they are both ego and  alter ego, invariably vying for our attention, not least with the rhetoric of persuasion.  

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AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A  MASTER BUILDER

You’ll find me in no history book,
yet I haunt its pages
among other lively ghosts
left pulling any strings
available in their assured capacity
as a role model figure
of authority, the least likely
to be challenged but by the politics
of ambition and its semantics

I am rarely seen compensating
for any damage done
given that my  preferred brief
has nearly always been
to take the path of least resistance
for just as long as I can
until the next player, poised
to take me over lock, stock and barrel,
ceases to scheme, gets real

I play mind games with humanity
in a contemporaneity
hell bent on putting its house
in order to specifications
as put forward by one of our own,
encouraged and backed
by various related personae
suggesting he or she has to be the best,
for the Here-and-Now at least

I am that bitter-sweet rhetoric of ego
behind every socio-political hero

Copyright R.N. Taber 2020

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