Hi, folks, from London UK

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

The great thing about growing old is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been." - Madeleine L'Engle

"Age is a question of mind over matter; if you don't mind, it doesn't matter." - Mark Twain

Hi, folks,

Yes, I am working on a new poem, but had such a BAD day yesterday, that I hadn't the emotional energy (let alone inspiration!) to even take comfort in a poem; a day that left me in tears for a growing frustration with losing the proverbial plot from time to time. Yesterday left me feeling emotionally drained for generally losing the kind of plot that appears to thicken - for some if not many of us - as years pass and we grow old...😉

The author of the plot?  My onetime friend, now long-time mischief maker, new technology. While I just about cope with internet banking, I am invariably at a loss when it sides against me and, try as I may, I cannot get it to follow my reasoning and do as I ask! Yesterday my secure key would not work. 

Eventually, I staved off panic by solving several word puzzles - invariably guaranteed to calm me down and help me rise above just about any crisis - and made my way to my bank; its local branch having closed down some time ago, I needed to travel. I don't drive, so chose to use London Underground as I am still wary of (always) crowded buses and having to sit next to someone who is not wearing a face mask.

At the bank, I was given a new secure key in a folder and told to visit the web page indicated in the folder.  I returned home, confident that all would soon be well. Alas, the web page simply took me to my usual page for internet banking, which I could not access because... yes, my secure key would not work!

I returned to the bank, approached a different person who gave me alternative information which, I could not quite follow; my fault, due to muddled thought processes, probably as much down to getting old as years of hormone therapy for my prostate cancer. Having barely left the bank, I now returned to try and get help from someone who could show me what to do on a pc. Although it meant a long wait, it was well worth it, as the young man who finally saved my day proved to be very patient as well as well and truly on the new technology ball... 😄

Once home, I failed yet again to log on to my internet banking account. Yet again, I returned to the bank where the same young man took me through the process of activating my new secure key, a process I hadn't quite understood but managed to follow due to his patience and demonstration on a pc. (I had almost got it right at home, but pressed a wrong button.!)

Home again, I solved two word puzzles to calm myself and distract me from the dread of yet another failure to access my internet banking account....

Once more unto the breach, dear readers once more, and... Eureka, success! I needed to transfer funds to another account, and was able to do so without a hitch.😁

I suspect I am not the only person struggling with IT these days, which is why I am sharing this sorry tale... for its happy ending, not my own failings. I was embarrassed, it's true, but the need to achieve my goal got the better of that, with more than a little help from the young man at the bank who, on a scale of one to ten, deserves ten out of ten for his patience with this ole codger. I could not thank him enough, for restoring peace to my personal space as much as access to my internet banking account... 

Another poem, tomorrow, folks, so hope you will join me again then.

Take care, stay safe and be sure to nurture a positive-thinking mindset whatever life throws at you. Never easy, but...we have choice? wry bardic grin

Hugs,

Roger

Hello again, from London UK

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

Dear Readers, 

Hello again from London UK, and I hope you are managing to keep as well as any of us can expect to feel during these testing times. As if it were not bad enough that we are not out of the proverbial woods yet as far as the coronavirus is concerned, so many organizations still fail to take elderly folks into account.

I tried to book tickets for an exhibition today, struggled to use my pc and finally had a confirmation email... BUT.. I then needed to load the app to my phone. in order to get the tickets electronically.. There had been no warning about this on the booking site or I would not have attempted booking in the first place... as I do not have a smart phone! I have contacted the organization concerned and asked them to cancel the booking so I can ask a friend who has a smart phone to do it for me. Hopefully, they will get back to me within the next few days and agree to cancel/ refund as I cannot afford to lose nearly £50.  I suspect I am not the only elderly person to be caught out this way. 

Even just a few years ago, I could probably have managed to get the hang of using a smart phone, but - as regular readers well know - years of hormone therapy for my prostate cancer have played merry hell with my thought processes. I get easily confused now, even with simple everyday tasks, although I get by ok, so have no intention of  bringing myself to the attention of Social Services; no offence intended to Social Services staff as they are wonderful people. but some are inclined to think they know best for older folks like me, and I have no interest in going into a Care Home. True, I don't cope well on my own, but I cope well enough and can still look after myself ok. Maybe one day... but not yet awhile. Hopefully I can manage on my own for a few more years yet. 😉

I have started doing word puzzles again to help my ailing thought processes and memory generally; they are great fun too. A close friend bought me a word puzzle book called Wordsearch when I was ill after a bad fall some years ago, so I  have set myself the task of completing the puzzles I left unfinished. Maybe it is wishful thinking on my part, but  even after a few days I am starting to at least remember where I put things more easily. sometimes, I even forget what I am doing if I am interrupted, so the task in hand remains unfinished and that seems to be happening less too. So, fingers crossed...😉

A neighbour commented that I am only 77 years old and Her Majesty the Queen  is years older and looking wonderful. Well, I am a great admirer of Her Majesty and wish her a wonderful Platinum Jubilee, but I suspect she doe not have to wrestle with the household chores and other everyday tasks with which we ordinary mortals have to contend. I say this with some feeling, after just having made my bed and had to wrestle with a clean duvet cover...😉 Even so, I would not change my everyday  mundane tasks for royal duties; the stamina and sincerity Her Majesty has put into those  throughout her reign  is nothing less than awe-inspiring. I cannot imagine how tiring it must be to  be constantly in the public eye, not to mention an oppressive media gaze. 

Oh, well, c'est la vie - whoever we and wherever we are -and life is to precious to waste crying over spilt milk. If you have read my open letters in the past, you'll know what I am going to say... and you'll be spot on. Yes, we can but do our best to nurture a positive-thinking mindset and not allow ourselves to get close enough to The Abyss to peer over and... enough said.😉

I am working on a poem and hope to publish it here sometime this week; its provisional title is 'Empathy with a Camel'; is is a revised version of a poem that was first published in my collection, First Person Plural (2002) under the title 'Riddle of the Sands'; twenty years on, I re-read the poem and suspect it may have come close to saying what I meant to say at the time, but far less so now. I can but hope I am a better poet now... of which only you, dear readers,  can possibly comment...😉 

Take care, everyone, keep well, stay safe and I'll be back soon, camel too.... 😉

 Hugs,

 Roger

Dotting I's and Crossing T's

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

)I recall various classmates of 1961 becoming very feisty and argumentative when asked to comment on certain lines in T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral. 

When asked to explain so many different arguments and points of view, the class became feistier still and even more argumentative. 

Everyone was clearly enjoying themselves, possibly because most of us hadn’t expected to enjoy the poem, not least for having had to read it for homework over the previous school holidays. 

No less aware then now as to how differences of personal opinion and interpretation can touch base with passions in us with which we may or may be overly familiar, it was my first major experience of seriously thinking about it. 

We need to hear and respect different points of view if only to help us formulate a critical response to them.   

DOTTING I’s AND CROSSING T’S

World, all but falling apart
seemingly losing heart, its peoples
coming together
now and then, but only in times
of crises, personal space
and sensitive global consciousness
then left to divide again,
crying over potential healing undone,
dying to review Square One 

World, looking all but dead
on its feet, weary of its weepy days,
anxious to revive kinder ways,
bridge chasms widening, deepening,
invariably by courtesy
of a global consciousness dead set
on reaping the better part
of nature-nurture in the sowing, reaping,
and saving of its own future 

Humanity, playing the world
with its demand for new technologies,
would have us tell tales
on each other, create such histories
of one-upmanship as embrace
all the politics of progress ever needed
to take credit where it’s to be had,
while any getting too close to home truths
dubbed vulnerable to fake news 

No matter how we dot its ‘i’ or cross its ‘t’,
it only takes one ‘y’ to redefine humanity

Copyright R. N. Taber 2021

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Systems Failure OR Oh, But If...

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

Information technology is a wonderful thing although I suspect it is leaving me behind, but at least I can read, write, wrestle fairly successfully with numbers and don’t need a computer to write a poem in my head…

Oh, and yes, I can go into common sense mode with ease as well. [Whatever happened to that plain, old-fashioned common sense upon which world societies once turned?]

Nowadays, I suspect we get our priorities if not wrong, exactly, then muddled to say the least. Technology must take its share of the blame. More of us are relying on it to the extent that we are getting lazy about thinking for ourselves. Worse, some people actually prefer social networks to meeting up and chatting face to face with people and friends.  (Is it any wonder social and interpersonal skills are going much the same way as common sense?)

No, I am not knocking new technology, but we should remain alert to the truism, ‘garbage in, garbage out’. Information technology, for all its wonders, remains vulnerable to human input.

The Scottish Robert Burns expressed it well in his own dialect, which more or less translates as 'the best laid plans of mice and men are apt to go awry.'

 “The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley.” - Robert Burns (1759-1796)

SYSTEMS FAILURE or OH, BUT IF...

If…

life is about humility,

love a question

of values, democracy 

a state of mind, (freedom)

so…what?

If…

a body, becomes numb,

(even dumb)

behind twitching curtains

of acid rain, what aid for us

in IT?

If…

to rummage e-archives

for inspiration,

we amateur philosophers

are driven, what if we haven’t

a clue?

So…

we could ask a computer

what IT's all about,

but don’t forget garbage in,

garbage out, may well see us

shut down

Copyright R. N. Taber 2000; 2014

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appeared in The Language of Life, Poetry Today (Forward Press) 2000 and subsequently in Love And Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2001.]

Close Friends, Distant Lives

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

Some readers may recall this poem. I have been weeding the blog, deleting and sometimes revising some less popular poems. Rightly or wrongly, I feel this poem deserves a second time around; it first appeared in an anthology, A Testament to Life, Triumph House (Forward Press) 2000 and subsequently in my collection. 

One of the most wonderful aspects of a close relationships and friendships is that they can survive just about anything, even distance, especially in this technological age that makes it so much easier to keep in touch.

CLOSE FRIENDS, DISTANT LIVES

I see the moon,
you see the sun; another time,
another place;
on the ground, perceive a snail
trying to keep pace
with it all

Our faces lit, now dark;
laughing, weeping, waking, sleeping;
world turning on a snail

I see the sun,
you see the moon; same day,
same night; in our hearts,
a secret place where old friends
meet to laugh, talk
and play

Ah, but our time is up
(even snails sleep). I close my eyes
and see you, feel your heart
beating under my shirt, your breath
painting sweet dreams
on my face

As good a time as any
to embrace our history, against which
all else pales

Such is the significance of snails

[From: Love and Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2000]

Alt-Ctrl-Delete

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

Update (May 2016): Today’s poem was written in 1998 and first appeared in the CC&'D magazine, Scars Publications (USA) 1999. Scars now publish issues through Amazon which are printed in the U.K. and Europe. Given that Scars are now able to release it internationally, hopefully contributors and interested readers can enjoy ordering hard copies without paying an insane shipping price for mailing from the States any more. Interestingly, Scars publishes only non-rhyming or blank verse; they have published some 50+ of my poems since the late 1990's which is a healthy poetic exercise for me as I usually use rhyme a lot.  More information about Scars at: http://scars.tv/ccd.htm

This poem springs to mind whenever I am at the keyboard of my computer along with the constant threat to global as well as personal survival with which we all live daily thanks to humankind’s general complacency regarding Green issues.

ALT-CTRL-DELETE

Blank screen staring at me
like a dead man's eye
as if taken by surprise
at the moment of execution,
expecting pulse, heartbeat,
a flow of blood to the works
in spite of those quirks
of human nature that put a body
on hold whenever its world
ceases to turn, all civilisation
gone to ash and dust, leftovers
of personal ambition

From inspiration, no help
to guide pen or brush;
Desolation, a lush wading
through risen waters
of the earth, baring pain
like a rose its petals
in acid rain, deserving better
at Nature’s hand
than a travesty of imitation driven
by Man’s jealousy of God
if only for being free of chains
(no human being exempt)

As melting ice caps start to flood
this world of ours, we can lose heart,
drown in its worst nightmares
(poet found dead at the keyboard)
or find a voice...

Our choice

Copyright R. N. Taber 2001, 2012

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in Love and Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2001.]