Harvest Home

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

“Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything.” C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed (On the death of his wife, Joy)

“Sometimes, only one person is missing, and the whole world seems depopulated.” - ~ Alphonse de Lamartine, Méditations Poétiques

“She (Dorothea) was no longer wrestling with the grief, but could sit down with It as a lasting companion and make it a sharer in her thoughts.”  George Eliot, Middlemarch

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments but what is woven into the lives of others.” – Thucydides

A neighbour commented: “I never met the Queen, never knew her except as a smiling, graceful figure reaching out to me from the TV. Yet, I feel as if I have lost a dear friend. Silly of me, I know…” 

Not silly at all. I suspect many of us are feeling a similar sense of loss, and as we pause to wonder why, we may well discover some answers to questions we all ask of ourselves.

The legacy of the late Queen Elizabeth II is, indeed, immeasurable in so far as it embraces a truly global consciousness. Mixed feelings, indeed, nor any greater than a sense of losing someone while, at the same time, wanting to celebrate their life.

HARVEST HOME

I am the world that turns
on an axis separate from all others,
yet as much a part
of a common humanity as the air
we breathe in order
to gift me to mind-body-spirit,
for planting and nurturing
what motivates this, my being baring all
to save a heart-and-soul

I can sing and dance, show
myself to the world, by way of urging
we celebrate the gift of life,
whose seed freely given in peace
and love, grown, nurtured,
harvested in such seasons of time
and personal space as begs
we pause to watch, listen, learn, take heart
from a truly indomitable spirit

Where the going is as tough
as it gets, be sure I’ll be there for you,
if not always understood;
feel free to rummage, no damage
done that cannot mend;
though my harvesting yield only pain
and tears of want and fear
,be sure, needs must you explore new worlds
beyond boundaries set by words

I am those feelings by way of which humanity
writes that epic poem we call ‘Eternity’

Copyright R. N. Taber, 2022

 

Life and Soul

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

"The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished , or the lustre of it will never appear." - Daniel Defoe  

As I have said many times before, I respect anyone’s deeply held religious beliefs, but reserve the right to criticise certain aspects of it and/or their interpretation, just as likewise, they are free to criticise my own perspective.

There is nothing sinful or abusive in agreeing to differ, so long as it is not conveyed in an offensive manner; sadly, it is not a point of view I have found in many people where their religion is concerned, yet I’m expected to accept being called a blasphemer, or worse, without being given much (if any) opportunity to defend the how-and-why of my own feelings.

There are exceptions, of course, and I have felt privileged to meet a good few throughout my adult life; people with a natural warmth and interest in others, regardless of ethnicity, religion (or non-religion) and, yes sexuality too.

I have said as much before on the blogs and I will say it again, that it is a tragedy how, in this 21^st century of ours, such prejudices persist, not least in certain religions in failing to see how they lay themselves wide open to accusations of hypocrisy.

Religion literally puts the fear of God in many people, to the extent they are scared of dying in case they are called to account for... whatever haunts them. Appearing before a court on Earth is a traumatic enough experience, but the expectation of a Judgement Day, and possibly ending up in Hell for all eternity with no leave to appeal.... that is terrifying.  A former colleague once sympathised with the certainty of my going to Hell because I am gay, and she may well be right, but when I commune with nature, I sense more love than retribution in the sense of spirituality it conveys to and settles on mind-body-spirit.

 It is through nature that I came to pantheism, the ides that God is nature, not its creator. The message I have always taken from nature is one of nurture and hope, even for the likes of we fallible human beings. So, I don’t fear death, only a prolonged dying and the pain of it, emotional as well as physical. It is why I have supported the Dignity in Dying campaign for some years. Some readers may care to look it up at: https://www.dignityindying.org.uk – even  make a donation...?

LIFE AND SOUL

Religion can but point the way
to its own interpretation of spirituality
as defined by its own agenda,
but Mind-Body-Spirit as per each of us
is as likely to encourage
a self-awareness that, in turn, lends us all
the spirituality we call ‘soul’

A soul may or may not lend itself
to the poetry and prose of any religion,
be persuaded by the rhetoric
of certain preachers to their followers,
while the human self
in all walk of life, is blessed with a capacity
for an all-inclusive spirituality

Where congregations in any place
set aside for any sentiments of worship
may well bring comfort and joy
to those who come to seek and find it,
the human soul needs only
that we take heart from the same life forces
as united to give birth to us... 

It is a sense of and hunger for peace
and love in all humanity that does battle
with its demons of all persuasions
that may well appeal to its baser desires
effecting a takeover
refusing to acknowledge or give any priority
to the spirituality that is humanity

In nature and human nature,
a kind of poetry to be sought and found,
by whomsoever cares to bid
their native senses ignore worldly rhetoric,
whatever it takes
to discover - or rediscover, as the case may be,
an all-inclusive spirituality...

 

Copyright R. N. Taber, 2022