Forewarned, Forearmed

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

"Our life is what our thoughts make it." - Marcus Aurelius

"Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory." - Miguel de Cervantes

"Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be achieved through understanding." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Peace we want because there is another war to fight against poverty, disease and ignorance." - Indira Gandhi

Now, human nature is no less subject to storms than the natural world; one-upmanship, even between friends, probably the moat common cause for a storm of fraught emotions breaking over many households. The harsher and stronger our emotions, the worse the storm and the longer (if ever) any sense of calm restored.

Sadly, storms can arrive and break seemingly without warning, not least because human nature is such that we often miss the tell-tale signs that all is not well; before we know it, the unexpected strikes and we are left to find a way through it if we can, not always possible unless we sit down and talk about it, something some world leaders and families are least willing to do... possibly because they haven’t a clue where to start?

Where weather forecasters can help us plan our days, there is no one but ourselves to help us plan our lives; all the more important that we take time to spot the clues, try to understand each other more, learn to avoid the worst storms altogether, talk peace before war has a chance to tread us into the ground…

The greater human tragedy of the war in Ukraine - for both sides - is it may have been avoided had Russia's president Putin seen the need for talks before assuming he had the upper hand anyway, so... why bother?

Such is the Landscape of Power, littered with as many false assumptions as good intentions; small wonder, then, that humanity loses its way from time to time...?

FOREWARNED, FOREARMED

Stormy weather,
scary flashes of lightening
brightening the gloom
with ominous glows now and then,
here, there, everywhere;
landscapes of fear in you-me-us
across the world,
expecting no less, even through tears
for far kinder yesterdays 

Storm, relaxing
its grip on all we creatures
great and small;
Apollo, trying to give any remaining
sense of doom and gloom
a welcome lift, child hands greeting
sunshine come to enlighten
mind-body-spirits in every corner of a world
left struggling to survive

Storm passing,
sky turning a mellow yellow,
clouds a shade lighter,
for a sense of Apollo taking our side
and working hard
to remind us all that not every day
can enjoy fairy tale endings,
up to love, lovers, flowers and evergreens
to keep turning our pages

Any tomorrow,
as likely as not, starting off
in much the same way
as yesterday, but for dawn’s early light
a shade brighter,
mind-body-spirit all the lighter
for a personal space
now primed to look on the brighter side of life,
forewarned, forearmed

Copyright R. N. Taber, 2022

The Dresser OR Contemporaneity, lead Figure in a Docudrama

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

Today's poem first appeared on the blog in 2012.

I have to agree with Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, when he recently declared his his objections to our trying to 'photoshop out' the worst aspects of our cultural history; as bad or ugly as it may well have been sometimes, we need to be reminded of it if only to avoid making the same mistakes.

As for pulling down statues and editing out any media footage that might cause offence, we need to remember that they are products of their time. We cannot and should not deny history, but nor should we dress it up with what amounts to fake news once we start cherry-picking those aspects we prefer to emphasise because they put us in a kinder light.

Regarding some public statues, it is, I suspect, the inscriptions they bear more than the sculptures themselves that cause offence; honouring those, for example, whose financial contribution to society at the time was not least on the back of their being slave owners. Slavery was an abhorrent, inhuman practise, and we should never be allowed to forget that. While I support the Black Lives Matter movement, I would prefer to see the darker aspects of any cultural past confined to a museum rather than provocatively placed in a city centre or wherever and/ or inscriptions changed to reflect those elements of historical fact that dont deserve to be celebrated. At the same time, I have to say that it is a GOOD thing that inequality and prejudice have been given a public platform in the course of recent events; hopefully, we will see world and society leaders take appropriate action to tackle social injustices that have no place in a 21st century.

It has been my experience that certain social, religious, cultural and, yes, even sexual elements of human nature are inclined to conspire against us (supposedly for our own good) in order to establish themselves in this or that driving seat; not infrequently, they choose to ignore that, ultimately, there can only be one driver, who may may well choose to take an alternative route. 

Such is the nature of the human ego that it can be something of a control freak ... as and when it suits. Nor does anything bring this home perhaps than when browsing archives, not least those, relating to family history; reading and capturing the imagination like a docudrama portraying human nature at its best and worst, strongest and weakest, all-enduring despite (even because of) the very flaws that comprise it.

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” - George Orwell 

“Study the past if you would define the future.” - Confucius

“The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.”
- James Baldwin,  The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction 11948-1985

This poem is a kenning.

THE DRESSER or CONTEMPORANEITY, LEAD FIGURE IN A DOCUDRAMA

I come in peace, a force for good

yet am often abused, used to make war

on lesser forces unable to resist

the strength of my will giving ambition

and determination their way;

for good or ill, time will have its say

and those, too, who endure

the wait to see if they can (ever)

put their trust in me 

I bring hope where weaker forces

sure to fail, yet can be misunderstood,

seen as an enemy, threatening

to take control for my own purposes,

harbouring a secret agenda,

a measured tissue of lies and half lies

an impenetrable camouflage

for self-interest convincingly ticking

all the right boxes 

I offer stability where foundations

of enterprise are in danger of collapse

along with all invested interests;

yet, I am easily distracted in playing

the hero, even persuaded

by my own convictions that any potential

for universal gain has to be better

than settling for less on the grounds

it bring happiness 

Personal Assistant to that chameleon, Power,

I am charged with dressing history with flair 

Copyright R. N. Taber 2012; 2020

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears under the title 'Lead Player in a Docudrama' in Tracking the Torchbearer by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2012]