Lockdown OR Mind-Body-Spirit, left Licking its Wounds

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

Overheard in a supermarket only yesterday:

1^st Man: I feel as if I’ve been waiting in this queue for ages.

2^nd Man: Yes, it’s like waiting for the coronavirus to go away.

Old Lady: Ah, but all good things are worth waiting for,. All it takes is patience, as anyone in love will tell you.

1^st Man: Easier said than done.

2^nd Man: That’s right.

Old Lady: No, dear, that’s life.

LOCKDOWN or MIND-BODY-SPIRIT LEFT LICKING ITS WOUNDS

Feeling as downcast as heavy cloud
in a sky where sunshine might never have shone
for all the light it spreads,
left wondering why bother to get up each morning
when doom and gloom
order of the day, radio and tv trying to paste over
the cracks in everyday life,
distracting any audiences with but minimal success
from the Covid-19 coronavirus

Selective DVDs, Talking Books
and movies with which even an audience of one can
engage and be distracted
from wondering if and when lockdown restrictions
will ease sufficiently
to let family and friends meet as often as they need
without having to fret
about people obsessed with wild conspiracy theories
and refusing to cover their faces

Suddenly, a hole in the clouds appears,
enough to expose a patch of blue, enough to encourage
a weary sun to shine through,
restore a glimmer of light in the eyes of passers-by
sufficient to raise a smile,
encourage cheerful chat, masks and social distancing
notwithstanding…
half-forgotten sounds of laughter, if muffled by necessity,
lightening the load on humanity 

Cloud, closing in on Old Man Sun again all too quickly;
Sun, winking as if to say, “Back soon, you’ll see …”

 Copyright R. N. Taber, 2020

Spring Sunshine

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

We talk about the spring, summer, autumn and winter of our years (which probably places me in mid winter) but I suspect that for most if not all of us, at heart anyway,  it’s always spring…

[Photo taken from the Internet]]

SPRING SUNSHINE 

Oh, for spring’s leafy corner of the heart

where I love to lie and watch the sunrise,

a beacon of hope to guide us at the start,

its life-shadows playing tricks on our eyes

Each time a cloud passes over my head,

they home in on me, such shadows, on wing,

like birds of prey demanding to be fed

or winter dreams grown impatient for spring

Clouds pass, leafy sky fills with song again

come the sun at noon and twilight’s descent;

though shadows chill a heart like winter rain,

in one corner, spring sunshine never spent

Where nature gives and nature takes away,

in love’s leafy corner, spring sure to stay…

Copyright R. N. Taber 2007; 2013

[Note: The first line of the final couplet has been revised from an earlier version of this poem that appears in 1^st eds. of Accomplices to Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007; 2^nd (revised) e-edition in preparation.]

Frost On The Glass

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

I well remember how, as a child, I would wake some mornings, sun shining on my window where Jack Frost had painted all manner of shapes and scenario; these would fill me with such a sense of wonder and delight that I was sure to be thinking positively by the time I jumped out of bed, game to take on a new day, whatever...

Nothing has changed. but for the wintry realisation that I'm more years older than I either feel or care to count.

FROST ON THE GLASS

Snow leopard 
pacing its territory;
Eagle circling
its prey, wolf howling 
to its kin

Avalanches 
stirring, poised 
to destroy
even as we watch, 
listen, wait 

Abating now,
dark winter's cruelty;
humankind
left hugging pillows,
half an eye
on window panes
writing up the poetry 
of winter

Consciences
stirring, poised
to wake up
if much preferring
to sleep on

Yet, not too late 
for Apollo
to light up
our darkness, see us
through it


Copyright R, N. Taber 2009

Winter Sunshine

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

However cold it gets, it is always GOOD to see a smile, if only a flicker of one, on the faces of even the most dour among us.

This poem has been requested by ‘Bradley’ for his mother, Helen ‘...for no other reason than I like it and it makes me think of spring.’ Bradley adds that he only discovered the blog recently after a friend gave him On the Battlefields of Love for a birthday present, and ‘...I now read a poem or two most days.’ Welcome to the blog, Bradley! Oh, and here’s wishing you a belated Happy Birthday too.

Bradley adds, ‘I never thought of myself as a poetry person and used to think it was an elitist genre, but am beginning to see what I have missed.’ Now, that made my day. Bringing just one person to poetry for the first time has to be every poet’s dream. I only hope Bradley stays with us when he discovers what my critics insist is an anachronistic passion for rhyme.

Winter Sun, Lavacourt by Claude Monet

WINTER SUNSHINE

Could be forgiven for thinking
it’s already spring

Blue skies, a kindly sun smiling
on huddled streets

Children playing, their laughter
tugging at the heart

A funeral procession demanding
we show respect

Glossy carbuncles confounding
their critics

Second thoughts setting us up
for more mind games

Could be forgiven for thinking
it’s already spring

Copyright R. N. Taber 2007

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