A Dawning

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

(Photo taken from the Internet)

"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world." - Oscar Wilde

"The light that puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star." -Henry David Thoreau

"One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night." - Germaine Greer"

Dawn: When men of reason go to bed." - Ambrose Bierce

Now, yet another reader asks “How on earth can anyone be expected to think positive in a world of negatives.” And as I’ve said before, we have but Hobson’s Choice, sink or swim…

As it happens, I can’t physically swim, but learned at an early age how to do so mentally. True, I have been at risk of drowning in my own mistakes from time to time, but much the same life forces that drove me to make them also rescued me. 

The greater mystery of life is indeed… mysterious; a mixed blessing, to say the least. What to make of it is down to each and every one of us, although our circumstances will vary, so we shouldn’t blame ourselves entirely for either wrong choices or missed opportunities; what we need to accept (better late than never) rather than blame ourselves for (or others) is our not always grabbing a metaphorical shovel and digging ourselves out of whatever mess we may find ourselves in.

Some people seem to sail through life, enjoy more than their fair share of fine weather and happy times. Envy, though, never did anyone any good; besides, appearances can be and often are deceptive. More to the point, it’s our life, our mind-body-spirit having to find its way, no ducking our responsibilities for long, however much we may try. 

Warring factions never did peace of mind any favours, and there are often as many of those within us as without.

What happens in the wider world affects us all, one way or another, not least  Putin’s war on Ukraine’s descending into new depths of depravity only yesterday with a missile attack on a crowded shopping mall in the central Ukranian city of Kremenchuk.

Oh, but yes, you are so right. I am not saying anything new, nothing we haven’t heard or thought before, so…why bother saying it? None at all if no one is taking it in, including yours truly. 

Taking it in or not, as the case may be, maybe it’s taking it on that counts, living by feelings for its making of us a better or worse person, wherever on its learning curve we happen to be in the course of any Here-and-Now?  As for any warring factions within and without us, the sooner they agree to differ, the better for everyone…but, like so many facts of life, easier to acknowledge than put into practise. 

Meanwhile, another sunrise making us promises it may or may not keep, depending on…?

A DAWNING

Waking with a heavy heart,
fearful of surviving yet another day
of medication, isolation, 
missing once favourite pleasures,
now barely memories,
bidding mind-body-spirit rise above it all,
recharge heart-and-soul

Can but rise to the challenge,
dodge arrows of despair as we dare
find ways to redirect 
negative thoughts into exit mode,
call on Imagination
to let us ally such with other spirited voices
making wiser, kinder choices

Earth Mother, ever here for us,
to lend a helping hand,
instruct the wind that we may be
privy to and inspired
by chicks in trees learning how to fly
in the face of global fears, learn peace songs,
lend meaning to safer landings

Rise, open curtains at windows
passing for human eyes,
give worldly sights and sounds benefit
of any doubt, take heart
just from living by learning how to fly
in the face of global fears, letting peace songs
lend meaning to safer landings

Copyright R. N. Taber 2022

 

Time Out

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

Today’s poem last appeared on the blogs in 2009 and I am repeating it today especially for a ‘L. P.’ who has been in touch to ask how best to tell family and friends he is gay. Another young man once asked when I thought might be a good time to tell his parents he had no intention of marrying the young woman his family have chosen for him. I also told them both that, it is their decision and theirs alone, but the longer they wait, the harder it will be. Nor should we blame ourselves for any hurt caused by standing out ground when we feel the need. We are not answerable for the shortcomings and/or short sightedness of others.

Is there ever a right time to tell someone something with which they may feel uncomfortable? Home truths, for example, never go down well at first if at all.

Ah, but we should not underestimate the power of common sense, and even less so the heart’s capacity to argue with questionable reason...and win.

Just as most LGBT people need to make time to tell family and friends about their sexuality, so those among the heterosexual majority who decide to go against parental well-meaning for their well-being and choose another path also need to choose their moment with care. Yes, with care, for diplomacy can only ever help win over the opposition.

In some instances, of course, there will rarely if ever be a ‘right’ time to raise this matter or that. Yet, the more serious the matter and the more intensely it concerns us, the more important it is that we make time to let the people who matter to us know that it’s the way in life we propose to follow, and are confident it is right for us.
,
Whether any attempts at diplomacy succeed or not, only time will tell ... and time demands both parties fully respect if not fully understand each other's point of view. Everyone needs to take time out in their lives to reconsider taking sides against others simply because they are 'different'; in other words, they do not conform to our own conventions/expectations. I suspect it is up to younger generations, from all walks of life, to lead the way in proving that our differences do not make us different, only human.

Did I say it was easy?

TIME OUT

Doors half opening, half closing;
windows flung wide, slammed shut;
roads stretching, bending;
children born and growing so fast;
parents coming, going,
working, and trying their hardest
to make out they won’t
even mind dying, but only so long
as the timing’s - what, right?

Earth flung, heaped, piling up;
nature’s buds opening, now closing;
dirt tracks stretching, bending;
world's birds singing while nesting;
parents coming, going,
and working at trying their hardest
to make out they won’t
even mind chicks flying off so long
as the timing’s - what, right?

More flinging, slamming about;
hungry mouths opening, now closing;
bony legs stretching, bending;
a capacity for love born, growing fast;
doubts coming, going,
working at trying their hardest
to fool us they not only
have our very best interests at heart,
but their timing’s - what, right?

Seasons of animal, vegetable, mineral,
leaving no time to make sense of it all

Copyright R. N. Taber 2005; 2011

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears under the title 'A Question of Timing' in A Feeling for the Quickness of Time by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2005.]