Nature, On Cue OR Mind-Body-Spirit, Balancing Act

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

A new poem today. (Still working on a kenning.) I was in my kitchen, watching sunlight through trees in the garden glancing off the very table at which I was sitting...a poem forming in my head even as I watched foxes playing and sunning themselves on the lawn attached to the basement flat below. I had been feeling sorry for myself after getting little sleep due to both a venous infection harassing my left foot and my prostate cancer making demands on my bladder. As I watched, my spirits began to rise; it was as if surrounding positive life forces were urging me to get the better of despondency and re-establish affinity with the brighter side of life.

I took the hint, spent ages on the poem and an feeling much the better for it. Whether or not my critics may judge it a good poem is less important than its reconciling me with a love for nature and faith in human nature, often tested in a person's later years when demands of the day include having to rise about health and mobility problems, make at least some headway on the housework, negotiate mad, rushing crowds long enough get the shopping done and still manage to keep looking on that often elusive brighter side of life.

NATURE, ON CUE or MIND-BODY-SPIRIT, BALANCING ACT

Sunlight in the trees

smiling down at me, encouraging

mind-body-spirit

to at least keep a balance where it teeters

on the edge of free fall

Apollo, whispering at my ear

to stay focused on what matters in life,

ignore conspiratorial forces

infusing better judgement with native fears

of rejection for any mistakes

Moonlight in the trees

winking at me, by way of reassuring

mind-body-spirit;

only human this tearful lying awake at night

fretting demands of the day

Selene, whispering in my ear

to sleep well, clear mind-body-spirit

of all nemeses,

conserve finer strengths, kinder judgements

on any demands of the day

Earth Mother, all around,

no metaphor for old gods and goddesses

but a consortium

of life forces to be seen, heard, drawn upon

at the edge of free fall

Look-see-listen-hear-feel

the trees relating a history of good-bad-evil

across a common humanity,

beauty and survival as good a personification

as any for its kinder side

Leaves, falling like flakes 

of light from the sky, the dark of humanity 

to see better by... 
for its history, a learning curve to its mystery, 
our Here-and-Now


Copyright R. N. Taber 2019

Sword and Shield, a Fight to the Better End

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

[Update (Oct 18 2016): It is more than two years now since my fall that resulted in a badly fractured ankle. The warned me tt the hospital that, given my age, I might never walk again, but I was having none of that, kept religiously to a daily schedule of physiotherapy and can now walk quite well with the aid of a walking stick. Yes, walking is sometimes painful still, but it is a great feeling to be out and about. The prostate cancer, too, remains under control with hormone therapy. So...no worries that I cannot overcome by reflecting on my late mother's words, 'If you worry, you'll die and if you don't worry you'll still die one day so...why worry?' I guess we just have to keep a sense of proportion.]

Since my fall, five weeks ago, I have had to exercise a degree of patience I did not know I possessed. I am always out and about, but have been housebound as the front steps are too many and steep for me to negotiate with crutches. Unable to put any weight on my left foot, a Zimmer frame gives me greater mobility around my flat. It has taken until last week for a CT scan to reveal a fracture in the heel so now I have a cast and must continue hopping around on the Zimmer for at least another five weeks. The heel may mend or it may not. I must wait and see…

I live alone, but friends and my lovely neighbours in the flat below have been a godsend, helping with shopping and everyday tasks around the flat that I cannot do myself. Their support means everything. Even so, there have been moments when I have felt very low; it was at just such a time that I had a spirited debate with Pain and wrote the poem, a kenning.

SWORD AND SHIELD,  A FIGHT TO THE BETTER END

True, I am no friend

but do not mean you harm,

will arrive uninvited

(and most unwelcome)

yet do my best

to make my stay as bearable

as possible,

coaxing mind, body and spirit

to comfort, find peace

I may bring clouds

and wintry days, but always

call on spring flowers

and scents of halcyon days

to brighten dark corners

where you may well cower

from everyday hardship,

and a growing sense of bleaker

times yet to come

True, I am no friend,

but I have the power to make

stronger person of you

if you will only rise above

the worst and make

the best of our time together,

let mind, body and spirit

make peace with even a wretch

the likes of me

As Pain its makeshift sword wields,
so peace and love, lasting shields

Copyright R. N. Taber 2014

Spring is a Girl in a New Dress

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

Okay, so spring isn’t quite here in the UK yet but...it’s just around the corner so let’s get a little ahead of ourselves, yeah?

SPRING IS A GIRL IN A NEW DRESS

Among bluebells, she skipped
wearing a matching dress,
smelling of rain, singing a song
about love, joy and peace;
laughing, she took me by the hand,
led me a dance as lightly
as a cheery breeze, teasing leaves,
caressing a dove’s feathers,
running exciting fingers across time
and space as lovers might to each other,
keeping the dream ... alive

I asked her name, and her voice
(like a tinkling of bluebells)
oh, so subtly, caressed my heart
like the dove’s wing
while parading a glowing pregnancy
at Earth's battered gate
though half expecting to be kept out
for reconstructing its wintry world
by keeping the Sandman to his word
in demonstrating a capacity for peace,
keeping hope … alive

A glittering shower of sunny rain
brought an offer of shelter
from a friendly tree, leaves of green
already playing host
to assorted couples, some foreign,
but when I turned, that girl
in her new blue dress was gone;
I searched awhile, soaked through
to the skin before sensing how it was
the very quality of my sadness lifting me,
making me feel ... alive

Come sunshine, showers, joy, sadness,
spring wears a new dress just for us

Copyright R. N. Taber 2007; 2011

[Note: An earlier version of this poem under the title 'Spring is a Girl in a Blue Print Dress' appears in Accomplices To Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007]