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.

Monday 14 June 2021

Subject to Circumstances...

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

Here in England, we will hear from Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, later today whether or not all remaining safety restrictions due to the coronavirus outbreak will be lifted on June 21st. 

Sadly, he is expected to announce a further delay, given the spread of the Delta variant and growing number of infections. 

Yet again, many personal and business plans will need to be put on hold. We can but hope businesses will survive and personal hopes are not entirely dashed. 

Many people, at the end of their tether after more then a year of Covid tensions adversely affecting their everyday lives will be tearful when the expected announcement comes. Yet again, it is down to human nature’s innate powers of endurance to press on regardless, still looking at the brighter side of life... albeit through a misty landscape. 

SUBJECT TO CIRCUMSTANCES... 

We shed and partly shed
the tears of a world left giving
and partly giving - while
(mostly) hell bent on taking more
than its fair share or what's said to be
on offer 

We bleed and partly bleed
for the ills of a world left fighting
and partly fighting - for justice,
peace and love on which it thrives
or partly thrives, duly obliged to keep up
appearances 

We resist and partly resist
all prejudice, hate crime, stereotypes
on which societies - turn
or partly turn, if only for running
this or that everyday gamut of its wishing
and hoping 

We dream and partly dream
of a world where kindness has the edge
on its nemeses - humanity’s
innate sense of right and wrong
putting it to the test, by having us jumping
through hoops 

We believe and partly believe
that mind-body-spirit will see us through,
for better, for worse - richer
or poorer, keep us safe or partly safe
wherever inner eyes focus on the better part
of human vision 

We are the rains that fall to feed
and partly feed a natural world on which
humanity, in turn - feeds
and partly feeds, reasoning its needs,
makes such excuses as keep it any which way
but (quite) loose 

Winds, blowing or partly blowing
such seeds of change as past times so love
to tell, retell - reworking
lives and part-lives, keep us on our toes
just long enough to have capital gains saving
and partly saving faces 

Such is the power of circumstances
letting us live and partly live, ever listening 
and partly listening - heartbeats
that would now have us running straight
and narrow, now only partly so for You-Me-Us
thinking we are in control

Copyright R.N. Taber 2021

 

 

 

 

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Saturday 20 June 2015

Flights of Tension to Fanciful Places


This may not be one of my better poems, but it has a certain therapeutic value, for me at any rate. Many years ago, someone told me that the best cure for tension and stress is imagination. I had never thought of imagination as a form of creative therapy, but of course it is, and one of the best.

Oh, but haven’t we all been there at some time or another, past caring and simply wanting to shut the world out, slump in a comfortable armchair and forget about everything and everyone for a while …?

The trouble with slumping is that it has a nasty habit of temporarily removing life’s more attractive distractions from the inner eye and insisting it takes us down the darker side of Memory Lane, thereby making us feel even worse … which is where imagination comes in, and will  play its part
part to perfection ... if we but let it. We have but to close our eyes, think nice thoughts and let mind-body-spirit whisk us off to wherever it is we would rather be, and with whom ...

At the time I wrote this poem, I was in the early stages of recovering from and reflecting on a very bad cold when a good ‘slump’ is just about all I’d felt like doing. My cold all but forgotten, I was soon putting pen to paper ...

For many years, writing a poem has been my way of not letting a ‘slump’ get the better of me. The same can be said, if to a lesser degree, when writing fiction; while my novels have not been bestsellers, they have given me much pleasure, and feedback from my fiction blog/has been very encouraging. (Feel free to browse any time - for both my general and gay-interest fiction - at:  

https://rogertaberfiction.blogspot.com/2016/05/news-updates-fiction.html

FLIGHTS OF TENSION TO FANCIFUL PLACES

Slump in a chair, thinking about life
and all the people I’ve known,
wondering where have they gone?

Slump in a chair, thinking about life
and all the things I have done,
wondering where I went wrong?

Slump in a chair, thinking about life
and choices made from the heart,
wondering where fear played a part?

Slump in a chair, thinking about life
and lovers who promised to stay
but left within hours of a night or day

Slump in a chair, thinking about life
and all the years wasted on regret
where I should have stood up to fate

Slump in a chair, thinking about life
and every epiphany I’ve known,
wondering where did I go so wrong?

Slump in a chair, thinking about life
and growing older, weaker,
for knowing I could have done better

Slump in a chair, thinking about death,
and all the people I’ve known,
wondering if there’s a hell or heaven?
  
Slump in a chair, watching television,
soaking up soap opera friends ,
lost the plot, left wondering how it ends

Slump in a chair, fret about being alone?
Not this time (slam on the brakes);
will get my life back, whatever it takes

Copyright R N. Taber 2008

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