One plus One makes The-Two-of-Us

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

Many if not most of us quite often think we could be doing this or should be doing that as if we were unhappy with our lot. Some of us are, of course, and need to following up our words with some real action. For many of us, though, it’s just talk, and we are okay with the way we are and the life we lead...

Could it be because we feel guilty about being happy that we are so wary of admitting it?

Life could always be better, of course. We all have our share of problems. On the whole, though, is life really as bad as some of us seem to be always complaining?  Well, yes, in some cases. Maybe, though, if we complained less and were more positive about life generally, things might improve for all of us and there would be less to complain about? A more positive rather than negative take on each other’s socio-cultural-religious differences would be a good start.

In my experience, the great thing about letting ourselves feel happy is that we find ourselves being more positive about everything and everyone; if we can develop our interpersonal skills along the way and achieve a greater sense of personal as well as social identity, so much the better. Moreover, while it doesn’t necessarily take two to be happy, it helps…a LOT

So let's try and look out for each other more, yeah? We all need friends, someone to care about us, especially if we happen to be living on our own for whatever reason.

 ONE PLUS ONE MAKES THE-TWO-OF-US

Yesterday,

we talked about doing this ‘n’ that

while we played with the cat

as the budgie looked on and the dog

snored away in his basket

Yesterday,

we discussed going here or there

while you vacuumed the floor

as I loaded up the washing machine

before we went shopping

Tomorrow,

we’ll talk about doing this ‘n’ that,

clean out the budgie’s cage,

probably ask the neighbours round

to try out the new Bar-B-Q

Tomorrow,

we’ll discuss going here ‘n’ there,

then take the dog for a walk

where we’ll be welcome at the pub

and catch up on the gossip

Today,

will be very much like yesterday;

shades of self-consciousness

for having far less than some if more

than many…and being happy

As for our arguing points of view,

it’s how one plus one makes two

Copyright R. N. Taber 2010

Friends

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

Today’s poem - another villanelle - was first written in 2002 and published in an anthology the following year before I included it in my collection.

Why do I make revisions at all?  During the process of preparing my collection for publication to Google Play in e-format, I find myself dissatisfied with some poems for reasons not always obvious, even to me; most, it has to do with how a poems ‘flows’ – or doesn’t, as the case may be.

Given that I’ve never really got along with most members of either my immediate or extended family, good friends have always been especially important to me. (Yes, even those of the ‘fair weather’ variety.) As I grow old (71 now and live alone) I am, oh, so thankful to and for good friends. and value our friendship even more.  

FRIENDS

Come some dark, lonely night

or saddest sunny day,

find friends, making it all right

At one with moon and starlight

kept at bay,

come some dark, lonely, night

Wherever a so-weepy half-light

gone charcoal grey,

find friends, making it all right

Find home fires burning bright

(shaping our clay)

come some dark, lonely night

Losing out (again) taking fright

of facing another day;

find friends, making it all right

Oh, but no kinder end or respite

from worldly rites of way;
come some darkest, longest night,

find friends, making it all right

Copyright R. N. Taber 2003; 2018

[Note: An earlier version of this poem first appeared under the title 'Among Friends, Music to the Ears' in an anthology, Where the Words take You, Anchor Books [Forward Press] 2003 and subsequently in The Third Eye (2004) by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2004.]

Nights Before and Mornings After

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

This poem has been significantly revised from the original as it appears in my collection. Why do I make revisions at all, especially where poems have already appeared in poetry publications elsewhere in their original form? To be honest, I am not really sure. Some poems I don’t revise in the least; others, as I read them from a distance of several years or more, seem to cry out, to a greater or lesser extent, for change.

As a poem is being read and interrelates with the reader, it takes on a life of its own. How much of a life and what shape it takes will depend, of course, as much on the reader as the poet. Could it be perhaps that even poems - like many of us as we grow old(er) - would welcome a makeover of sorts?

I can live with living alone, not least because I am a fairly self-contained person. At the same time, I wake sometimes to a bleak feeling of emptiness that I would never experience upon opening my eyes  to love-lines on the ceiling while listening to the gentle breathing of someone next to me. Moreover, it is a feeling to which  I suspect no single person, whatever their sex or sexuality, would ever claim a monopoly,

NIGHTS BEFORE AND MORNINGS AFTER

The touch of your cheek
like damask on mine;
playful fingers, eagerly
entwining

Watching a crescent moon
play hide-and-seek.
an occasional star venturing
to peek…

Clouds drift down, cover
the world’s lovers
with a handkerchief stained
shades of blue
for all the lights, darks
and in-betweens
of human loves, joy, grief...
marking pearly brows

Distant hum of an aeroplane
waking the senses
to a rare  reality hinting
at immortality

Your lips homing in
on mine,
eager tongues breaking free
of all bondage

Heaven-sent embraces
gathering pace, spinning us
on the Earth’s axis,
spilling us like drops of dew
from spreading petals
come break of day, exuding
incredible scents of  a lifetime's
lovemaking,

Pink triangle of dawn,
risen to a chorus
of nature’s lasting blessing
on our finer triumphs

At peace in your arms,
no sweeter rest
for having no dread of waking
from it alone

Copyright R. N. Taber 2004; 2011

[Note: An earlier version of this poem  appears under the title 'Heaven's Handkerchief' in The Third Eye by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2004; revised ed. in e-format in preparation.]

In the Company of Dolphins

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

I have been asked to repeat the link  to my poetry reading on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square during the summer of 2009  as part of sculptor Antony Gormley's One and Other 'live sculpture' project. At first, I am shown being lowered by crane to the plinth and it is a good five minutes before the reading starts: http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100223121732/oneandother.co.uk/participants/Roger_T  [NB: Sept 19, 2019 - The British Library confirmed today that he video is no longer available as it was incompatible with a new IT system, However, it still exists and BL hope to reinstate it and make it available to the public again at some future date.] RNT

Meanwhile...

This short poem is about love and friendship and being there for loved ones and friends when they need us. .It is also about the lasting power of love and friendship.

There is a saying that what goes around comes around. We never know when it will be our turn to need help. People for whose idea of love and friendship is a one-way street (and there are plenty out there who expect us to be there for them but rarely if ever reciprocate!) would do well to remember that.

IN THE COMPANY OF DOLPHINS

I think of us at twilight’s gentler tears

on flowers in a pretty garden, glistening

like ocean spray in spring sunshine…

In the mind’s eye, I see survivors

clinging to the wreckage of a ship that

safe harbours will never greet again,

and dolphins come like guardian angels

to redeem a fate demanded by storm clouds

riding old Poseidon’s back

Now calmer seas, survivors washed up

on kinder shores, dolphins gone, task done.

Lost souls saved at godly whim?

I know not, can but let heart and mind

wish the company of dolphins to bring us

safely home…and though that be left

to this sad world’s darker poetry,

may love’s light shine through twilight’s

gentler tears on us

[From: Accomplice To Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007]