More of the Same (Unless, What ... ?)

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

[Update, December 31st 2018: I hope  you all enjoy my posts and poems as  much as I enjoy writing them. I have not been in good health for some years, and at 73 there's neither time nor room for much improvement. Even so, I keep looking on the bright side of life. The blogs distract me from the likes of prostate cancer and arthritis, and help me to feel more in touch with the world since I've been less able to get out and about in it. A huge thank you to everyone for staying with me; the sum total of pageviews for both poetry blogs has now passed 300,000.]

Here’s a BIG thank you to all my readers. When I started writing up the blogs, I hoped to reach a few thousand people, but both blogs have now had 53,000+ pageviews since Google started collecting statistics in May 2010; feedback suggests many of these are regular readers.

Christmas, light years away already. Let us hope 2014 will be a better year for us all. Sadly, for many of us, I doubt whether it will feel much like we are emerging from recession and hardship for some months, even years yet.

All we can do is find a bright side and focus on that as we try to make the best of things rather than dwell on the worst. Despite having to contend with regular bouts of depression, it is something I have always tried to do…with varying degrees of success (and failure).

Did I say it was easy?

May we all find peace and love...this year, and always...keeping mind and heart open to all things and all people.[Well, as far as some people will let us anyway.]

MORE OF THE SAME (UNLESS, WHAT ... ?)

A new year beckons across the sad remains

of a Christmas past its use-by date,

discarded wrapping paper a pretty metaphor

for token gestures, world over

Our shame, its magic fading, oh, so quickly

to an everyday ordinariness;

(they fade too soon, the laughter and songs

of a world coming together.)

Even so, the frailest things may last forever

once touched by love;

so say bodies living (and dying) on our streets

here, there, world over ...

Wherever a heart beats in time with another

love will find a way

(even if means heaping starker choices upon us

than any Holy Books ... ?)

Needs must, recycling pretty wrapping paper

and tearing a strip off humanity

whenever it fails to teach its children respect

for our differences, world over

Copyright R. N. Taber 2012

Looking out for Christmas, Anyone?

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

Yes, Christmas will be with us in less than a month. However, not everyone enjoys a happy Christmas. For homeless people and others down on their luck, it is a time much like any other time...unless we can somehow make it special for them too.

Years ago, I met a homeless gay man who had been physically ejected from his family home on Christmas Day after his father discovered he is gay. This Christmas, I know of a couple on the run from their families who disapprove of their relationship because they are on opposing sides of the same religion. [If God doesn't mind, why should anyone else?]

No matter what religious festival is being celebrated at whatever time of year, a little understanding goes a long way. It is, after all, part of the pact we make with love. And what worth any religion without love in it? I am told that the God in whom so many people believe is a God of Love. Take love out of the prayer and ritual and all I imagine He sees is someone enjoying an ego trip.

We can't always expect to understand those we love and may not always agree with them, but that doesn't (or shouldn't) mean we love them less. It has always been one of humankind's greater tragedies that too many of us let socio-cultural-religious traditions dictate how we live, even love.

At the heart of every religious celebration is (or should be) love in all its shapes and forms...or what is there left that any God would have anyone celebrate?  

LOOKING OUT FOR CHRISTMAS, ANYONE?

Come, hear the bells of Christmas

though lost, alone, in the snow,

recalling times past when we’d leave

a card for Santa, hot cocoa

and a mince pie, try to sleep while

listening out for reindeer hooves

pounding across the sky, a cheery cry

ringing loud and clear for children

everywhere to hear, know (for sure)

that we are loved, no matter who

we are or how our lives shaping up,

whether or no we’re finding signs

of Christmas or much the same cruelty

(or worse) than the day before

Peering ahead down an endless road,

lost souls, alone, no place to go

till time (at last) to reclaim gifts of love

and peace, count blessings, let bells

speak for us, echo high and low, anxious

to share out the joys of Christmas,

fearful for lost souls looking for refuge

from a bitter-sweet winter snow
where no pretty flowers able to grow
yet nurtured out of sight and light
by Earth Mother, chief carer for a world
beyond even mind-body-spirit,
where all the odds stacked high against
mutual understanding or trust

Copyright R. N. Taber 2003; 2013

[Note: This poem has been slightly revised since it first appeared in Christmas Remembered, Anchor Books [Forward Press] 2003 and subsequently in The Third Eye by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2004]