A Light at the End of the World

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

For those with any kind of cancer in their system, it is a scary time. Having lost loved ones and friends to various cancers, I count myself fortunate that prostate cancer, unless it becomes very aggressive, is rarely terminal on its own account. Even so, living with it from 2011 - when I was 65 - into the heart of a coronavirus pandemic has given me some panicky moments. 

For many people, 2020 has been a tragic year, losing loved ones and friends to Covid-19. Someone recently commented on losing her mother to the coronavirus, that “I feel as if it it’s the end of my world…” 

I know that feeling well, but whenever it hits me, I recall something my mother told me many years ago when my grandfather died. “Always remember,” she said, “that love never dies. Whenever you feel the need to be with someone you have lost, close your eyes, picture them as you best remember them, and engage with them as if they were still here…”  

I confess I was sceptical, but have tried it many times since, and it always works, especially with my mother who died some 40+ years ago. Those we love and who inspire us never stop loving or inspiring us. 

There can, of course, be no substitute for the physical presence of those we love, whether we are separated by mortality or simply distance, but if love is what makes our world go round, it is always there, ready to support and comfort us, even (or especially) at such dark times as our world may seem to have ceased to turn. 

Try it, and see…? 

 A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE WORLD

Allied to mortality am I,
no friend to mercy or compassion,
nor soul to keep me
from carrying out my worst intentions;
though my kinder host
will have it say, I’d have the last word
be mine, and mine alone,
only to be robbed of the greater epiphany
by such life forces as resist me 

I will seek out the innocent,
and drain the very life from them
without a qualm,
nor showing favour to any nobility,
age, gender, sexuality,
status or lack of it in the eyes of the world;
rich or poor, beggar or thief,
all are equal when my push comes to shove,
but the Spirit of Love resisting me 

My victory may well be assured,
but never complete, trust human nature
to see to that,
with its lust for life and affinity with love
in all its shapes and forms,
bringing to mind-body-spirit such a passion
for the meaning of things,
leave a trail for others to follow, as likely as not
a leading light in their darkness 

I am that cancer forcing mind and body to submit,
but even I cannot kill the human spirit

Copyright R. N. Taber, 2020

Life, Sunny Side Up

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

A reader has emailed about yesterday’s poem in so far as to ask “You have a gay poetry blog so what on earth is a gay poem doing on this (general) blog. If anyone readers are in the least bit interested, they know where to look. I enjoy many of your poems, but don’t expect to find gay stuff …"

Well, a poem is a poem is a poem, whatever the content, and if the reader cares to look closely, he will see that it is not a gay poem except in the sense that gay folks, like most if not all of us, are capable of jealousy; it is, after all, a common human trait. A gay man, I choose to write both general and gay-interest poetry not only for my own pleasure, but also to remind us all that there is more to any of us than our sexuality; readers are as welcome to make up their own minds about the poem as they are about the poet.

Meanwhile …

Today’s poem touched on a theme to which I return to time and again, the enduring power of love and its related consciousness - ‘live’ or posthumous - offering any mind-body-spirit a safe and happy haven from its worldly woes.

LIFE, SUNNY SIDE UP 

There is a place I know
where the sun always shines,
children playing,
adults engaging in cheerful chat,
where all time spent is sheer magic
nor any Covid-19 to spoil it

There is a place I know
that lets human spirits go free
from troubled minds,
encourages human hearts to look,
learn, love, even be happy, no lifting
it from a favourite storybook 

There is a place I know
that’s an open secret between
family and friends,
lovers, too, accessible to any of us
who believe in a common humanity,
for all its common weaknesses 

It’s a place I got to know
during early years, kept as close
as hand on heart,
no need for any rose-tinted glasses
just a growing sense of live and let live,
a global shortage of glass houses 

So, what and where, a place
any loved one can rediscover joy,
this dream-come-true?
it’s that home from home intimacy
that endures just for sharing it with you,
within and beyond living memory

Where time invites us to enter its portals,
choose well, and revisit love’s immortals

 Copyright R. N. Taber, 2020