Resilience

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As regular readers know, I am working my way through my printed collections - from latest to earliest - while compiling e-editions that will contain revised versions of all those poems that have since been revised (and already appear on the blogs); having been asked by readers to add some poems missing from the blogs, here is another, the last from 'Tracking the Torchbearer' (2012). I will soon start working on 'On the Battlefields of Love' (2010). I am very unwell at the moment, but will try to continue writing up posts, and the occasional new poem, as often as possible. 

I am delighted that feedback suggests some of you are already exploring my poetry archives, as listed on the right of blog entries.

Meanwhile...

Never, but never underestimate the power of the human spirit. While I do not subscribe to any religion, therein lies a spirituality to which most if not all of us can easily relate, whatever our socio-cultural-religious background. 

Several readers who have only just recently started dipping into my poetry blogs suggest that I am being hypocritical when I refer to a sense of spirituality in blog posts/ poems. Hopefully, this villanelle will help to put the record straight for him; regular readers over the past ten years will, of course, already know where I stand on the issue.

RESILIENCE

Life and Death in a combat zone

for the lives of thirty-three men;

it was a passion for life that won

Hope and love moving things on

(against all odds, sure to win?);

Life and Death in a combat zone

Despair, the centuries-old demon

sure to stake a claim of its own;

it was a passion for life that won

Love, insisting we are not alone

in a womb-tomb of imagination;

Life and Death in a combat zone

Dark thoughts, dragging us down,

reminding us we’re only human;

it was a passion for life that won

Victory! The light of a new dawn

signalling survival like a beacon;

Life and Death in a combat zone;

it was a passion for life that won

Copyright R. N. Taber 2010

[Note: Written to celebrate the resilience of thirty-three miners in Chile trapped 700 metres underground for 69 days and rescued in October 2010.]

Guest Speaker

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

Here is another poem that I came across as I work my way though my later print collections in order to (eventually) post revised editions of all my collections online; it does not appear elsewhere on the blog... (Earlier ones will be more time-consuming as I have since revised many of the poems,)  Oh, and anyone interested will also find 'new' poems on my gay-interest poetry blog.

At the time this poem was written, multiculturalism was still finding is way in the UK; although it has been an aspect of society here for years, a growing immigrant population, and a mixed media reaction to it, meant everyone began focusing on the issue with increasing intensity and - as often as not - increasing criticism.Thankfully, most people accept multiculturalism as part of everyday life, but it continues to have its critics, especially where various socio-cultural-religious issues are concerned.

Why, oh, why can't people simply agree to differ and enjoy a feisty debate without recourse to race or gender issues that are no more relevant to the modern world than dinosaurs?

This poem is a kenning or a "Who am I?" poem as the kenning is often called.

GUEST SPEAKER

I am relatively new

to the world’s societies

bent on testing me

to the limits of tolerance

towards a diversity

keen to embrace everyone,

regardless of race, sex

or creed if on its divisions

determined to feed

I dare have my say

in public places, Holy Books,

political manifestos,

though adults (as a rule)

less likely to grasp

what it is we’re getting at

than the child at school

asked what he or she thinks

life is all about

We have to live together,

which means more agreeing

to differ, if only to defuse

rising discontent with animosity

dished up by this culture

or that religion vying for priority

with precious little respect

for a common humanity

Engage with me, Multiculturalism,

expose any Politics of Separatism

Copyright R. N. Taber 2010

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears under the title, 'Footnote to a Treatise on Abuse' in Tracking the Torchbearer, Assembly Books, 2012.]

Just a Question of Love

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

Today’s poem  is from my gay-interest blog archives for April 2012 and takes its title from a delightful and moving gay movie of the same name (in translation) Juste une Question d’Amour; it was first shown on French television in January 2000.

There was a time, especially in the 1980's and early 1990's, that Channel 4 here showed a variety of mainstream gay films, but we rarely see any on British television these days. [By mainstream, I mean an alternative to the kind of soft porn stuff that’s easy enough to come by. No worries there, but I for one enjoy a good story line with believable characters. Titles like The Torchsong Trilogy, Beautiful Thing, Get Real and Brokeback Mountain instantly spring to mind...]

Only relatively rarely do we even hear any discussion on gay issues here, either on TV or radio. Could it be that broadcasters are afraid of offending the less enlightened among the heterosexual majority, increasing in numbers all the time in a multicultural society in which various socio-cultural-religious hang-ups invariably include homophobia?

Now, as I have said many times, love does not discriminate so why should anyone? Sometimes I wonder, are we really living in the 21^st century?

Even nowadays, many gay people are made to feel they have to choose between sexuality and family, friends, culture, entire home environment. No one should have to make such a choice anywhere in the world. and no one has the right to impose it on anyone else. To each, their own, of course, but we can agree to differ without going into hostile overdrive, surely?

 Whatever our gender, race, religion, sexuality, disability, age etc. - oh, and politics as well - .we are a common humanity; as such, we need to start treating people we consider 'different' with the same respect we would ask them to pay us. Ageism, sexism, racism, homophobia....there is far too much of such prejudices across the world, as damaging in our Here-and-Now as climate change to our futures, for young people especially since it will be they, not us, who will be expected to bear the long-term consequences. 

Wake up, world, and get real!

This poem is a villanelle.

JUST A QUESTION OF LOVE 

As spring rain from above

on Earth Mother in pain;

it's just a question of love

As push comes to shove,

so love into its own,

as spring rain from above

The healing wing of a dove

will learn to fly again;

it’s just a question of love

Love has nothing to prove;

a bigot’s loss, its gain,

as spring rain from above

See a hand torn from glove

beat cold and pain;

it’s just a question of love

If nature’s sexuality prove

as precious a bane

as spring rain from above,

it’s just a question of love

Copyright R. N. Taber 2010

[From: On the Battlefields of Love by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010]

Potential for Victory OR Tackle the Weeds, Save the Garden

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

[Update (March 4 2017) Our thoughts are with the friends and families of all those killed and injured in yesterday's terror attack on the St. Petersburg Metro. At the moment, no terrorist group has claimed responsibility although official Russian sources are saying it was, indeed, a terrorist attack. A second bomb at another Metro station was successfully defused. The world's War on Terror goes on, a war its perpetrators cannot and will not win if only because they underestimate the human spirit's capacity for overcoming even the darkest forces. How ironic, though, that terrorism should bring out the best in good people everywhere, uniting us in grief, peace, and love even as other wars rage and divide us.]

[Update ( July 15 2016): I am sure readers will join me in sending heartfelt sympathy along with thoughts of love and peace to all the families and friends of those killed and injured during the latest terrorist attack; this time in Nice, only yesterday. May the eternal optimism and resilience of the French people help them through such terrible times. Indeed, it would seem that decent people worldwide must find a way to rise above the constant threat of terrorism if only so these psychopaths cannot claim victory over the better, stronger, kinder and more stoical elements of the human spirit that will endure long after all terrorists are less than dust in the wind, no matter how many lives they may have taken or whatever trail of destruction they leave behind; any suggestion that the name of any terrorist is in the least bit worth remembering is an insult to the memory of his or her victims.]

We can but hope common sense will prevail over politics and a two-way dialogue will (eventually) allow diplomacy to triumph sooner rather than later over the sub-machine gun, the missile, the roadside bomb, the suicide bomber, the likes of an attack by mindless fanatics on innocent commuters, a defenceless young soldier in broad daylight on a London street, worshippers in a place of prayer, tourists sunning themselves on a beach…

And so it goes on across the world...

The trouble is some people - especially the more vulnerable among us - are easily persuaded that weed flowers are worth saving, even nurturing. The good gardener, of course, knows better.

I guess all we ordinary men and women on any street anywhere in the world can do is just get on with our everyday lives, do our best to create ripples of peace, love, and respect for each other’s socio-cultural-religious differences instead of open hostility. Hopefully, these may spread far and wide enough to do at least some good. Wishful thinking…? Well, maybe, but worth a try surely?

No one is necessarily an enemy because they are 'different' in respect of race, religion, political outlook ... whatever. I have said it before and will keep saying it... our differences do not make us different, only human, and we are all, each and every one of us, part of a common humanity.

This poem is a villanelle.

POTENTIAL FOR VICTORY or TACKLE THE WEEDS, SAVE THE GARDEN

Where terrorism strikes fear,
encouraging the world’s divisions,
sense its victory, oh, so near

Inhumanity painfully clear
(election fodder for our politicians)
where terrorism strikes fear

Though survival cost us dear
following conscience-led decisions,
sense its victory, oh, so near

Dare humanity turn a deaf ear
to the in-fighting among its religions
where terrorism strikes fear?

Once mutual respect finds cheer
in spirituality’s common aspirations,
sense its victory, oh, so near

May peace songs persevere
with infiltrating all enemy positions;
where terrorism strikes fear,
sense its victory, oh, so near

Copyright R. N. Taber 2010; 2015