http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
Today's poem last appeared on the blog in 2008. Some
readers may care to see/hear me read it among others on various themes on the 4
th plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square in
July 2006 as part of Antony Gormley’s
One
and Other ‘living sculpture’
project for which 2400 people from all walks of life in the UK were invited to
‘do their own thing’ for one hour 24/7 over 100 days. The entire web-stream is
now archived in the British Library and this is my contribution. Some readers
have asked if I can send them a CD, but Sky Arts refused to let any of the
participants have one so anyone who may want to watch it again needs to make a
note of the link:
http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100223121732/oneandother.co.uk/participants/Roger_T - [For now, at least, this link needs the latest Adobe Flash Player and works best in Firefox; the archives website cannot run Flash but changes scheduled for later this year may well mean the link will open without it. Ignore any error message and give it a minute or so to start up. The video lasts an hour. ] RT 3/18
Surely, there are few sights more encouraging or reassuring than to watch this sorry world of ours close down rather splendidly if a trifle disturbingly and only temporarily, of course...as if inviting us to do the same?
PATCHWORK
Dusk, a
patchwork quilt spread
over
trees and meadows’
warren,
set, foxhole, well hid
from
prying eyes
Late
birds on slight, misty wing
heading
for the nest;
walkers,
ramblers, hastily
checking
compasses
Children
at play looking out
for text
messages;
Middle
England, on the edge
of things
temporal
Green
campaigners counting
hard won
laurels;
curtain
closing on one last peep
at a hazy
beauty
Tasting
raw smells of earthiness
and
buttermilk sky;
empathy
with a nightingale’s
plea to
be left in peace
Random
stars brought down,
like clay
pigeons
by
bonfires in back gardens
always
taking liberties
Bats,
alley cats, all putting a shine
on the
Sandman’s boot
whose
task to get us ready
for the
next clay shoot
World,
coming together briefly
to try
and patch us up
Copyright
R. N. Taber 2004; 2012
[Note:
The appearance of this poem on the page has been revised from an earlier
version first published in Nature's
Tapestry, an anthology compiled for Poetry Now (Forward Press) 2002 and The Third Eye by R. N.
Taber, Assembly Books, 2004.]
Labels: countryside, dusk, human nature, human spirit, landscape, life, mind-body-spirit, natural world, nature, personal space, poetry, wildlife