The Zen of Flower Arranging

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

This poem has appeared in several anthologies and is a favourite of mine. Feedback suggests that it is a favourite with many of you, too, so that is great news. I know I am seen as something of an anachronism by many people because my frequent use of rhythm and rhyme is not what they have come to expect from modern poetry.

Positive feedback is always especially welcome and very encouraging. At the same time, never hold back from getting in touch to tell me otherwise; if you have something to say, say it, and if you email me (rogertab@aol.com) or include an email address if using using the Comments box, I will always reply/ Although I never post comments, I always read them, and thanks for sending.

THE ZEN OF FLOWER ARRANGING

Flowers in my window saying I love you;

flowers in my window showing how I care;

flowers in my window, dreaming of you;

flowers in my window to tell you I’m near

Flowers in my window, story of our love,

a sweet dream of springtime in winter’s sigh;

Flowers in my window, make a fine show

of welcoming the world though it pass us by

Flowers in my window, reflections of you;

flowers in my window, highlights in the hair;

flowers in my window, love running true;

flowers in my window, as if you were here

Dreams in my window, we'll always believe;

dreams in my window, gifts from your grave

Copyright R N Taber 2007. 2019

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in Accomplices to Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007.]

Paradise On Hold

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

Like many of my poems, Paradise On Hold has also appeared in an anthology; in this case, This Is Our Moment, Poetry Now (Forward Press), 2000. It was also included in the May 2006 issue of Ygdrasil: Journal of the Poetic Arts that featured a selection of my poems. I am posting it today especially for ‘Susan from Birmingham’ and ‘Greg from San Francisco’ who emailed me to say I am getting ‘too political’ and would I please post another of my nature poems. I was delighted to receive several complimentary emails after it first appeared here on the blog back in June 2008. [Oh, but it seems like only yesterday! Where does the time go eh?]

Meanwhile, I continue to experience in my relationship with nature, an ever growing sense of peace and love I never found in religion, supporting my personal view that religion has no monopoly on spirituality.

Yes, nature can be harsh but so, too, can religion, not least in its various dogma which must bear no small share of responsibility for a divided world.

PARADISE ON HOLD

Let spring drift
into summer, its greens turn
red and gold;
let poets make of seasons
all they find;
it's Nature rules, and even poets
grow cold whenever  winter calls
on lonely hills

Soon, daffodils,
in their turn, and ours, too,
if the way of things
running true. Who knows?
For each flower
let grow, its seasons come
and go where human nurture
of a mind to follow

Yet, for each seed
blowing in the wind, a threat
to all its kind...
Let the world wreak its worst,
the good earth
will do its best, though
it share or kills in the light
of human ills

In life, in death, let there
be flowers...

Copyright R. N. Taber 2001, 2010

[Note: An earlier version of this poems appears in the aforementioned publications and in Love and Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2000]