A Window in Time

 

(From Roger’s friend, Graham)

 

Hi everyone,

Over the years I’ve attended many of Roger’s poetry readings. Many took place in public libraries or art centres. Occasionally they were part of an events programme for LGBT+ History Month (February, here in the UK). Often, friends and old colleagues would attend.

I recently discovered a sound recording among Roger’s personal effects. A reading at the Society of Genealogists hire space, London, back in March 2017. Hearing his voice again was evocative. It made me recount those many convivial evenings enjoying poetry and wine. More interestingly though, it offers the listener an extra dimension. They’re more expressive and nuanced than mere lines of printed verse. The added intonation and emphasis illuminates and counter-shades the narrative.

I’ve opted to add some imagery. A simple slideshow really, which hopefully provides a suitable backdrop. My plan is to publish the entire reading in full on Roger’s YouTube channel. For now though, I’m including a link to the first part here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2klMtjNWuSQ

Happy listening and thanks for reading.

Graham

 

*  *  *

 

ROGER TABER - POETRY READING

Tuesday, 21 March 2017

 

PART 1

Close Friends, Distant Lives

A Short History of London

The Busker or Music, Spirit of Life

Last Take on Multiculturalism

Whatever Happened To Love?

The Ballad of Neighbour Joe

Darkness, The Poetry of Mixed Feelings or The Scenic Route To Daylight

View From A Church Window

Life At The Shallow End or Keeping Up Appearances

The Zen Of Counting Beans

A Family Connection or Time Travel Firsthand

Harvesting Imagination

Looking For Answers or Passing Comment On The Human Psyche

Mother Love

The Guardian

 

(CC) R N. Taber 2017

 

Jaws

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

I love nature, but - like humankind - it has its dark side. While I have experienced the darker side of human nature at first hand from time to time,  not least for being gay, I suspect other readers will have had similar experiences for various other reasons. It is one of our world’s greater tragedies that different people from different socio-cultural-religious backgrounds are not always born and raised to adopt ways of seeing, thinking, believing and acting that are compatible with a common humanity.

A  complex, often contradictory condition, humanity, not least for being human where the natural world follows natural laws, and needs no excuses for doing so.

Better news is that the kinder side of human nature will always triumph over the cruel, if not always how or when we might prefer.

JAWS

I watched an owl
glide a path of moonlight,
hover a certain spot
before selecting to swoop
on a prick-eared rabbit;
watched the owl penetrate
a cluster of stars,
fiercely clutching its prey,
only to be sucked, in its turn,
into night’s open jaws

I crossed to the spot
where both owl and rabbit
had but followed
the harsher laws of nature
we’d rather forget;
where once peace and quiet,
now scary echoes
pricking my conscience
for holding an act of nature
to a mirror on the world

No blood on my hands,
but tears of mine and moon
for our having seen
life and death as if nothing
to choose between;
walked slowly home
mindful of a sharp chill in the air
and the vastness
of earth and skies sucking me
into its jaws

Copyright R. N. Taber 2010; rev. 2018

Nature, On Cue OR Mind-Body-Spirit, Balancing Act

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

A new poem today. (Still working on a kenning.) I was in my kitchen, watching sunlight through trees in the garden glancing off the very table at which I was sitting...a poem forming in my head even as I watched foxes playing and sunning themselves on the lawn attached to the basement flat below. I had been feeling sorry for myself after getting little sleep due to both a venous infection harassing my left foot and my prostate cancer making demands on my bladder. As I watched, my spirits began to rise; it was as if surrounding positive life forces were urging me to get the better of despondency and re-establish affinity with the brighter side of life.

I took the hint, spent ages on the poem and an feeling much the better for it. Whether or not my critics may judge it a good poem is less important than its reconciling me with a love for nature and faith in human nature, often tested in a person's later years when demands of the day include having to rise about health and mobility problems, make at least some headway on the housework, negotiate mad, rushing crowds long enough get the shopping done and still manage to keep looking on that often elusive brighter side of life.

NATURE, ON CUE or MIND-BODY-SPIRIT, BALANCING ACT

Sunlight in the trees

smiling down at me, encouraging

mind-body-spirit

to at least keep a balance where it teeters

on the edge of free fall

Apollo, whispering at my ear

to stay focused on what matters in life,

ignore conspiratorial forces

infusing better judgement with native fears

of rejection for any mistakes

Moonlight in the trees

winking at me, by way of reassuring

mind-body-spirit;

only human this tearful lying awake at night

fretting demands of the day

Selene, whispering in my ear

to sleep well, clear mind-body-spirit

of all nemeses,

conserve finer strengths, kinder judgements

on any demands of the day

Earth Mother, all around,

no metaphor for old gods and goddesses

but a consortium

of life forces to be seen, heard, drawn upon

at the edge of free fall

Look-see-listen-hear-feel

the trees relating a history of good-bad-evil

across a common humanity,

beauty and survival as good a personification

as any for its kinder side

Leaves, falling like flakes 

of light from the sky, the dark of humanity 

to see better by... 
for its history, a learning curve to its mystery, 
our Here-and-Now


Copyright R. N. Taber 2019

Darkness, the Poetry of Mixed Feelings

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

A friend who (like me) has not had a good year confided that he almost dreads the year  drawing to a close because he fears what next year may bring. He is 80, and (for years now) inclined to think every Christmas will be his last. In my book, that’s as as good as saying he’s afraid to wake up and face a new day in case it is worse than the day before. Oh, I get it, I really do, but negative thinking never got anyone anywhere they would prefer to be.

Me? As regular readers know, I try to take my cue from Monty Python, always looking on the bright side of life, no matter what, even when the view is a wee murky.

Besides, where some people take inspiration and comfort from religion, I take mine from nature…and doesn’t spring always follow winter?

DARKNESS, THE POETRY OF MIXED FEELINGS

In the absence of light,
not a soul in sight, nor star or moon,
yet whispers
in a passing breeze urge calm
as kind ghosts return
to fill a lonely heart with love
and urge us all
to seek peace of mind, be at ease
with ourselves

Does the heart play deaf
for fear of pain returning to haunt
a mind hosting
too many regrets that so relish
any prompting
to haunt, taunt us, make us
feel small
where no shadows even
to take our side?

Oh, but listen, listen, listen
to what friendly ghosts have to say
about seizing the day,
the better to let sweeter dreams
drive the Bogeyman
far away, unwilling to return,
risk further humiliation
where happy hauntings sure
to drive him out

Though a mind be as restless
as a wintry sea on some lonely shore,
let the heart say its piece,
hear it out, let it ease  body’s aches
and pains, inspire
the human spirit to picture moon
and stars looking down
on us with a twinkle in each eye,
anticipating a new day

Copyright R. N. Taber 2016

Humanity, a Self-Portrait in Shades of Light and Dark

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

Now and then, readers get in touch to say they will be visiting London and ask to meet up for a chat over a coffee, beer, or perhaps a meal. I have met people from all over the world, male and female, gay and straight, and it has always been a delightful experience. 

It is not only very encouraging but also fulfilling for a poet to meet his readers, and I hope more of you will feel free to meet up with me. Oh, and fear not, I appreciate plain speaking and don’t expect everyone to like or even agree with everything I write. Needless to say, I always enjoy a friendly argument…

Feel free to email me any time: rogertab@aol.com

Meanwhile…

On wintry days (not necessarily of the seasonal variety) it can sometimes seem as if darkness must inevitably get the better of us, such is the nature of things, that we human beings will never shrug off its nightmares for long and any light of day revisited but a cold one.

Ah, but never, never, say ‘never’ or underestimate the capacity of the human spirit for love and light in all its shapes and shades…or the enduring power of either. While there is no greater power of remembrance than love, there are aspects of character and personality in all of us that are likely to make an impression on others to form part of a posthumous consciousness that lends us a sense of immortality, passed on from person to person, generation to generation, ad infinitum ...

Photo: from the Internet

This poem is a villanelle.

HUMANITY, A SELF-PORTRAIT IN SHADES OF LIGHT AND DARK

Though death’s dark canopy,

our lives may obscure,

to light, the final victory

Along thorny paths of history

let us tread with care,

though death’s dark canopy

If few life choices made easy,

consciences left clear,

to light, the final victory

Among triumphs over misery,

to light, the greater share,

though death’s dark canopy

Where shades of inhumanity

feed on hate and fear,

to light, the final victory

Let self, its own worst enemy,

love’s true colours wear;

though death’s dark canopy,

to light, the final victory 

Copyright R. N. Taber 2005; 2015

[Note: An earlier version of this poem first appeared under the title Darkness and Light in  Expressions from London and Home Counties, Anchor Books [Forward Press] 2004 and subsequently in A Feeling for the Quickness of Time by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2005.]

Frost On The Glass

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

I well remember how, as a child, I would wake some mornings, sun shining on my window where Jack Frost had painted all manner of shapes and scenario; these would fill me with such a sense of wonder and delight that I was sure to be thinking positively by the time I jumped out of bed, game to take on a new day, whatever...

Nothing has changed. but for the wintry realisation that I'm more years older than I either feel or care to count.

FROST ON THE GLASS

Snow leopard 
pacing its territory;
Eagle circling
its prey, wolf howling 
to its kin

Avalanches 
stirring, poised 
to destroy
even as we watch, 
listen, wait 

Abating now,
dark winter's cruelty;
humankind
left hugging pillows,
half an eye
on window panes
writing up the poetry 
of winter

Consciences
stirring, poised
to wake up
if much preferring
to sleep on

Yet, not too late 
for Apollo
to light up
our darkness, see us
through it


Copyright R, N. Taber 2009