Rising Above White Noise OR Peace-and-Quiet, Life Force

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

“Silence is a source of great strength.” Lao Tzu

“Silence is of different kinds and breathes different meanings.” – Charlotte Bronte

“We all should rise, above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness and selfishness.” Booker T. Washington

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin

“What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.” Helen Keller

“I daresay some would never get their eyes opened if it were not for a violent shock from the consequences of their own actions.” - George Eliot 

We all live in worrying times. Here in the UK it's not only not only the rising cost of living, but also as to whether or not an already under-staffed and over-stretched NHS can cope should the Covid-19 pandemic return to previous devastating levels. We also have a new prime minister. whose plans are far from clear as to what she has in mind to help steer us through it all.

Whatever lies in store for any of  us as we pass through autumn into winter, the average man and woman in the street has little control over any of it. This, alone, can cause high levels of frustration, even anger, sufficient even to make some people violent.

It is no coincidence, surely, that levels of domestic and street violence have risen in recent times?

As if this wasn’t enough, it would appear that climate change, too, is closing in on us faster than anyone anticipated.

We can but do our best to make a positive contribution, however great or small, and try to keep the peace within ourselves and between each other; a positive thinking mindset has to be as good a start as any, yes?

YES! 

RISING ABOVE WHITE NOISE or PEACE-AND-QUIET, LIFE FORCE

A frantic drumming in the head,
blood pressure rising,

mixed emotions driving a mist

all but blinding me

to all that’s threatening me,

but putting me on guard

against an unknown enemy I must defeat

though I stumble at every drumbeat

Sick at heart, weary of a world

whose burdens all but

crushing me, mind-body-spirit

left in so many pieces,

small chance of reconstruction,

such commotion in me

leaving me cloth-eared to a voice

growing fainter, yet screaming all the while

from a terror-struck heart-and-soul

Suddenly, all drumming ceases

the strangest silence 

inviting me to embrace it, ask of it

all questions, listen out

to a heart-and-soul inscribing words

of love, peace, kindness

and other secrets of survival on walls 

of an inner sanctum beyond even imagination,

commanding all my attention

Such is the spiritual nature of silence to enlighten,

if we but stop, look, listen and… learn

 Copyright R. N. Taber 2022

Sunset on a River

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

Just when I think I haven’t another poem in me, one comes along to prove me wrong, and here it is, my first poem of 2019.

I love sunsets, not only for their natural beauty, but because – for me, as I dare say for many of us – it draws a line between night and day, light and dark. I find myself reflecting on life, love, nature and the relationship between nature and human nature more than at any other time. I have noticed, too, that these reflections often feed into my dreams and almost certainly contribute to my being something of a philosopher-poet.

The photo was taken by my closest and dearest friend, Graham – who also shoots the videos for my You Tube channel – and I wanted to share with you, dear readers, my thoughts upon viewing it.

SUNSET ON A RIVER

At the heart of a setting sun’s glow

I watch images of my past

converging on the Here-and-Now

while hazarding a guess at what comes next;

where only passing wings dare go

At the heart of a setting sun’s glow

I hear echoes of my past

converging on the Here-and-Now

while reaping the finer part of memory’s yield

as nurtured by mind-body-spirit

At the edge of a sunset’s fading glow

I toss all testing times

converging on past-present-future

while taking heart from a sense of Carpe Diem

bonding nature and human nature

In the dying breath of a sunset’s glow

as earth and sky conspire

to pass the world into the arms of night.

I’ll put one foot in front of the other, feel safer

for a discourse with Earth Mother

Where moon and stars on some river flow,

 so, too, the human heart aspires to follow

Copyright R. N. Taber 2019

Spirit of Silence

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

I put my faith in nature long ago. Yes, nature has its dark side but isn't that true of most if not all things?

If I personally cannot believe in a personified God , I respect other people's Belief. When I am quiet and reflective, nature speaks to me. I guess it is the same for a religious person when they pray. Nature, God...these are one and the same thing perhaps? Who knows? Whatever, I suspect we are closer to the truth of things when we are quiet and reflective. It is of how we feel at such times that we can be sure even if there are no words to express or confirm it. Everyone's feelings are different. Everyone's knowledge of themselves is different. That isn't to say this person is right or that person is wrong.

A writer is sometimes described as a wordsmith. Me, I have always been convinced that silence says far more than words can even begin to express.

My late mother once told me she loved silence. I thought this was a strange thing to say, especially as she loved chatting to people and could often be heard singing her favourite songs. So I asked her why. 'You can trust silence,' was all my she said. It has taken me years to understand what she meant. It is during peaceful, comforting silences  that I best reflect on all she contributed to the better part of me.

Now, it is often said that you never really know a person until you live with them. Perhaps that is why my dear, late mother once commented to the effect that before we can declare with authority that no one knows us better than ourselves, we need to learn to live with ourselves, that is to say the person we are rather than the person we would rather be or whom others would rather we be.

Oh, we like to think no one knows us better than we know ourselves. Yet, how well do we really know ourselves? How often do we face up to those home truths we don’t like to dwell upon so brush them under some proverbial carpet? Even so, we always remain aware of why we did so even if we prefer not to follow that particular path.

BOY: So how do your learn to live with yourself?

MOTHER: Look for the spirit of silence. If and when you find it, let it lift you above the noise of the world.

It was years before I even began to understand what she meant by that either.

“I've begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.”  - Chaim Potok, (The Chosen)

This poem is a kenning.

SPIRIT OF SILENCE

Listen out for me
a silence in the air, surpassing
all the music ever written;
Look, see how I fly the world
on wings as quick
and beautiful as anything
nature aspired for even
its favourite species between
earth and sky

Reach out, touch me,
let fumbling fingers discover
the purpose of creation;
Smell. Find in a spring shower,
urging winter to waken
where it would but sleep in
and delay things,
a fragrance of kinder truths
polluted by ‘progress’

Embrace me, let your senses
open as in the womb,
recover that spiritual identity
religion so covets
that it seeks to direct and control
what it likes to call ‘soul’
even if that means using threats
all the world makes under
cover of noise

Trust in me, the Spirit of Silence,
harbinger of all human resilience


Copyright R. N. Taber 2012

[Note: An earlier version of this poem  (revised final couplet) appears in my collection, Tracking the Torchbearer by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2012.[