Living with Dragons

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

A reader writes that it is all very well for me to encourage positive thinking in the face of adversity, but it is easier said than done. True enough, and have I ever suggested it was easy? We all need inspiration and hope to see us through the harsher facts of life we are likely to have thrown at us from time to time from one source or another. 

As a child, I loved fairy stories and legends, and still do. I have met parents who forbid their children to read them on the grounds that they are not true-to-life and leave them ill-prepared for such trials and tribulations as they will invariably encounter as they grow into the adult world. Not unusually, I disagree. 

More often than not, fairy tales and legends have happy endings, heroes getting the better of villains and everyone left living the Happy-Ever-After that is their hallmark.  Not so, in real life for much of the time. Even so, the best tales see good overcoming bad, heroes defeating villains etc. Like many children, I used to love role-play, even on my own, when I would play the imaginary hero sure to get the better of whatever villain I would pick from whatever story or (as would happen not infrequently) a real-life experience at home, at school, wherever. 

The death of a loved-one or close friend can take us to the edge of reason, sending us into battle with the most fearsome of all dragons, our own mortality; even as we grieve,  we find ourselves fighting on two fronts. Some find inspiration in their religion. Me, I take heart from Happy-Ever-After tales whose endings are but new beginnings. No? Well, disprove it if you can.

Such role-plays would serve me well as I grew to face the harsher realities of teenage years and adult life. At 75, I can honestly say they still do. Mind over matter, much of it well may be, but if it works… who cares? I have lost count of how many times I have become a favourite storybook hero in my head and it has lifted flagging spirits just to feel that I can and will get through a bad time and learn from it… eventually. 

“I believe in everything until it's disproved. So, I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?"― John Lennon. 

LIVING WITH DRAGONS

Some ghosts, they haunt
shadowy corners of the mind
while others would keep us
safe and sound from such fears
as well might make
cowards of us all or, worse still,
see us engage with dragons shadowing
our darkest thoughts 

The human spirit, it run 
a gauntlet of conflicting emotions;
love and hate often vying
with each other to be top dog
in stakes whose winners
take all, losers left mulling over
how they might do better another time,
and someone to blame 

Such is the Here-and-Now
a blast of home truths stripped bare
of such excuses
as might well fool any believing
they know us better
than we know ourselves
but for a dragon bringing us down
and proving us all mistaken 

Ah, but the human spirit
is a match for any dragon’s hellfire,
not least for fighting
fantasy with fantasy, so dampening
flames of innuendo
fuelling gossip and stereotypes
behind closed doors (as only human)
with a kinder imagination                              

Life may be going so badly
as to wring tears of despair from us,
yet we have but to play
giantkiller, visit friends in Toyland,
cross angry seas
with Ulysses, reunite with love,
in whatever it is every human heartbeat
will always have a head start 

However high, whatever odds
stacked against us, there are beanstalks
to climb, giants to defeat
(one way or another) and dragons
to confront head-on,
for where the heart is willing,
as led (or misled) by faery days of long ago
be sure the mind will follow 

Therein lies the untold story of humanity,
its penchant for fantasy… 

 Copyright R. N. Taber 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whatever Happened To Once-Upon-A-Time?

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

Regular readers will know that I am often revising earlier poems, usually only slightly, but sometimes more drastically even when the original has already appeared in one or more poetry publications. Why? I suspect that, years on, I am quite simply looking at the same poem/s and their theme/s from a different perspective; it is not necessarily a criticism of the earlier version.

The first version of this poem was written in 1996. It had already appeared in Thoughts from the Pen, Book Mark (1997), Meridian Poetry Magazine (1998) and Visions of the Mind, Spotlight Poets [Forward Press] (1998) before I included it in my first major collection in 2001. The second version is a revision with which I have been toying only recently.

So which version do you prefer?

Ah, but the sheer escapism of my childhood continues to see me though the harsher aspects of reality. So much for growing up...

(1) WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ONCE-UPON-A-TIME?

Fairies in the garden,
dragons in the sky;
Shadowy mists of Avalon
risen high;

Home, some dark cave

in a far, far distant time;
Poetry and heroes,
legends in their prime
come to rescue us from
the terrors of bed-time;
All gone, kids grown,
and who's passing on
secrets of protection
to a generation
that prefers computer games
or, better still,
copycat storylines
from Pandora's Box?
Issues of the day, strategy
in a ratings war. Peter Pan
shot down over Walford;
Beasties under the bed
breaking out like chicken-pox
on a child's face

And no hiding place

[From: Love And Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2001]

(2) WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ONCE-UPON-A-TIME?

Fairies in the garden, dragons in the sky;
shadowy mists of Avalon risen high;
Home, some dark cave in a far distant time;
poetry and heroes, legends in their prime,
come to rescue us from the terrors of bed-time;
All gone, kids grown, and who's passing on
hard hat protection to a generation
that prefers computer games, copycat story-lines
from Pandora's Box?

Issues of the day, strategy in a ratings war
(Peter Pan shot down over Walford);
Beasties under the bed, busy breaking out
like chicken-pox on a child's face

And no hiding place...

Copyright R. N. Taber 1997; 2011

[Note: Walford is a fictional London Borough in a long-running BBC soap opera called Eastenders.]