http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
Today's poem first appeared on the blog in 2016.
Here in England, the hospitality
industry will be open for business again from tomorrow. Have fun, everyone, but
be careful out there because the Covid-19 coronavirus has not gone away.
I have met many people who feel their past is somehow preventing them for
having a future, be it a criminal record, a history of mental illness, or quite
simply an honest mistake that had unforeseen consequences of the worst kind.
Having suffered a BAD nervous breakdown in my early 30’s - among other examples
of social mud inclined to stick, not least my being gay - I know only too well
where they are coming from.
However, I don’t believe in good
luck, bad luck or… whatever. We make our own , and where good people come
forward to help, there has to be something within us as
well as within them to make them want to
help...or not, as the case may be.
When things go wrong, whether or
not through any fault of our own, we invariably need help to get back on our
feet, take a positive perspective, make amends for our mistakes as far as
amends may be possible, get real rather than feeling sorry for ourselves and
abdicating responsibility for our future to a world that appears to ‘have it
in’ for us.
True, help is not always on hand or
if it is it's not always obvious; more often than not, we have to seek it out
and want to seek it out. No, not an easy task, but always well
worth the effort.
“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in
ourselves.” - William
Shakespeare
“The only person you are destined to
become is the person you decide to be.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
This poem is a villanelle.
A GAMESMAN'S (LIVE-IN)
APPRENTICE
M-E spells how it is, and likely always will be,
the past ever catching out what its
future brings,
apprenticed out to a gamesman
called 'Destiny'
I love to act judge-jury over
tea and sympathy,
reluctant to concede any
conscience’s redeeming;
M-E spells how it is, and likely
always will be
Once the past a prison, all hope of
breaking free,
but a dream for one who, (upon a
rude awakening)
apprenticed out to a gamesman
called 'Destiny
Bad-done-good often thought beyond
the ability
of even the creative mind’s more
positive thinking;
(M-E spells how it is,and likely
always will be?)
Learning from our mistakes rarely
comes easily,
where he or she who sets gossip tongues wagging
apprenticed out to a gamesman
called 'Destiny
Call human nature a fickle creature
for essentially
choosing to feed (or not) on a rare
bent for forgiving;
M-E spells how it is, and likely
always will be,
apprenticed
out to a gamesman called 'Destiny'
Copyright R. N. Taber 2016; 2020