Spelling it Out

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“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein 

“The world helps you to keep evolving and hope it's for better. You have to rise above all the tragedies in life. You have to grow, and if you stop growing, you are old.” - Hrithik Roshan“

Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”- Helen Keller 

“Winter is a season of recovery and preparation.” - Paul Theroux  

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” ― Maya Angelou

Now, after all the fun and fireworks, the early days of any new year can become daunting as we place our hopes in what lies ahead, no idea whether or not we will see them fulfilled, fail in the attempt or be outwitted by forces beyond our control…? A scary prospect.  The more we contemplate a whole new year ahead, so excitement and enthusiasm may well give way to a mind-body-spirit likely to leave us  less able to think straight than the worst hangover ever.  

So…? We may well need help. We may well need a sounding board. We may well need a good friend (who knows us well) to confide in and help our more positive thoughts to find a voice, give us feedback, help us through the hangover into whatever it takes to help us confront, make sense of and (eventually) rise above whatever is gnawing away at us…

SPELLING IT OUT

Old year done and dusted,
another to get through, for better
or worse, as we can but try 
to keep looking on the bright(er) side
of life, whatever challenges
invading our personal space demand
we meet them head-on, 
resolve to tackle each as best we can,
bring out the best of being human

We can wish our cares away
to no avail, side-step, put on hold
our worst fears in vain,
inevitably have them catch us out
when we are least prepared
for not having thought them through,
shared our feelings with a friend,
sought more than a shoulder to cry on,
called on the best of being human

Every worry, every sadness
needs to find a voice, similarly
every voice needs someone
to listen to what it has to say, hear
what lies beyond the words,
help us to understand our world,
(even make it a kinder place?)
bring such inspiration to personal space
as lets heart-and-soul set the pace

Another year of spelling out You-Me-Us;
keywords: patience, peace, happiness

Copyright R. N. Taber 2023

[Note: This post-poem also appears on my gay poetry blog today, given that feedback continues to suggest that many LGBT readers remain inclined to give this one a miss.] RT

 

A Life in the Day of Mind-body-Spirit

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“Make the most of your regrets; Never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it ’til it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“Age has no reality except in the physical world. The essence of a human being is resistant to the passage of time. Our inner lives are eternal, which is to say that our spirits remain as youthful and vigorous as when we were in full bloom. Think of love as a state of grace, not the means to anything, but the alpha and omega. An end in itself.” – Gabriel García Márquez  

“Look closely and you will see almost everyone carrying bags of cement on their shoulders. That’s why it takes courage to get out of bed in the morning and climb into the day.” ~ Edward Hirsch

“Happiness quite unshared can scarcely be called happiness; it has no taste.” – Charlotte Bronte

Now, as each day passes, my 77th birthday looming (in December) I am often hard pressed to keep looking on the bright(er) side of life. I so miss being young, fit, able to make plans and feel confident that I will be well enough to not only carry them through, but also enjoy and learn from them. I miss having friends around for cosy chats and a laugh; many have moved away now and mobility problems make travelling difficult.

Ah, corny though it may sound, the human spirit really can keep us young at heart and soul, if only we will let it, Rarely (if ever) easy. We can but try, even if, as life itself invariably proves, it’s a case of ‘win some, lose some…’

A LIFE IN THE DAY OF MIND-BODY-SPIRIT

There are times in any life
when the flesh is weak, but the spirit
remains as strong as ever,
whatever its reasons or seasons,
be it a spring, summer, 
autumn or winter of mind-body-spirit;
it perseveres, encouraged
by a heart-and-soul, wiser beyond its years
to sources of human tears

There are times in any life
when waking after a poor night’s sleep 
leaves the body too weary
to even raise a smile at dawn’s rising
above early mist and cloud,
trying to force its way to half-open eyes 
and ears, through drapes 
at windows obscuring Everyman’s perception
of life, love, regeneration…

Finally, though, mind and body
takes its cue from what lends it sense,
sensibility and stability,
from birth to death, whatever in-between
may lie in wait, ready to pounce
and test us to limits sure to weigh heavy
on any host body, 
all the love attending it beseeching its survival
of Humanity’s heart-and soul

Alas, not every ear that hears
can comply with every caller’s bidding;
no call, though, is ever in vain,
no matter of the human outcome be loss,
and pain, in whatever form;
living, partly living, or stored in Memory’s
vault of eternal springtime,
there remain such ways for all selves to choose,
every which way, then…loose?

Copyright R. N. Taber, 2022

Peace and Goodwill, True or Bluff?

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I used to love playing 'True or Bluff' with friends, although I could never quite shake off  a sense of its being a game I have engaged in all my life that is no game at all but part and parcel of mind-body-spirit's tenuous grasp of what, indeed, is true or bluff... no less often with myself than with others in all walks of life, at various levels of consciousness and conscience.

On the subject of Christmas, a clergyman once told my Sunday School class that “Religious festivals are all about bringing peoples of the world together in the sight of God.”  to which a voice piped up, loud and clear, “He must be get very disappointed by what he sees then...”

Everyone laughed... whether at the child’s precocity or the look of sheer perplexity on the face of the clergymen, who was clearly at a loss for words, I wonder even now. 70 years on. He quickly recovered his composure and proceeded to tell the Christmas Story. I would have been about ten years-old at the time, and found myself wishing even then that he has responded to my young peer’s comment. It was a watershed moment for me as I began to address my inner self increasingly more closely as to just what it was about religion – not just Sunday School – with which I was less than comfortable.

A few years later I would confide in my Religious Education teacher at Secondary school that I found difficulty in relating a growing sense of spirituality in nature rather than religion. He explained that, as God created nature, it was all part of the same scenario, although he also said that human beings have complex needs and no religion has a monopoly on spirituality. I had a problem, even then, with a personified God and those words would eventually lead me to Pantheism.

As I have said before on the blog, I have every respect for a person’s Belief or non-Belief, but, each to our own, and Pantheism works for me in so far as it sees God as nature rather than its creator..

PEACE AND GOODWILL... TRUE OR BLUFF?

Christmas is that time of year
when we are all meant to put on a show
of good cheer, often a bluff,
but convincing enough to keep family
and friends from suspecting
we are more fragile than we seem,
at breaking point even,
but the Christmas show needs must go on,
if only for the children

On that first Christmas, long ago
the Christ child was born, and must be so
because the Bible tells us so;
myth, fairy tale, what’s the truth of it?
Ask the preacher or trust
in gut feelings and mind-body-spirit
feeding us a sense of peace
as we’d dearly l have comfort, console us
for all we see in tea leaves

Singing carls around the tree,
thankful to be in much loved company,
lending us a sense
of a common humanity sure to find
its way one day, coming
together to fight a common enemy,
no matter our religion
or differences in whatever kinder life forces,
we make our life choices

Christmas, over, a new year
around the next corner, time to reflect
on knowns and unknowns
likely to lead or mislead us, such
is the way of all flesh,
sun, moon and stars taking turns
to let us enter into
a spirituality akin to that we enjoy, embrace
one and all, at Christmas

Yet another Covid Christmas,
a human tragedy that it takes a pandemic
to create a sense of unity,
world against a common enemy;
yet, old habits die hard,
never easy to admit we were wrong
to judge or assume,
better, surely, to give and take the gift of Peace
at all-embracing festivities?

“United we stand, divided we fall,” Earth Mother
might well have us remind each other...

Copyright R. N. Taber 2021

Togetherness, Poetry set to the Music of Time

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Spring, summer, autumn, winter... mixed experiences, all weathers and feelings as nature runs the gamut of its potential. Likewise, mind-body-spirit as it passes through the seasons of its life on Earth.

If the finest of weathers is sunshine and the warmth it brings so, too, the finest of feelings has to be love... and who’s to say, in the winter of our years, whether or not we shall ever see another summer...?

Love comes in all shapes and forms and, yes, sometimes the illusion can be such that we mistake it for reality, but the spirit of true love never dies...

TOGETHERNESS, POETRY SET TO THE MUSIC OF TIME

Hope, rippling summer corn

like stirrings of a child unborn,

wondering in the womb

on whatever may lie waiting between

life and tomb...

I lift my eyes to a gorgeous sky,
loose more dreams, watch them fly
like the tail of a child’s kite
flapping bravely against nature's 
might till barely a flicker, 
waved out of sight with tearful eye
and puckered brow, the child
I once was, returning now across
shadowy years, watery eyes
less of a surprise in the summer air
than once having sought 
without finding, been hurt without
making a sound while caged
in a breast so often deprived of rest,
tired of hearing “it's for the best,”
weary of waiting for waiting’s end,
lonely for want of a dear friend,
finally found, only to sail off on a sea
of corn,  FREE – and you’re smiling
wistfully back at me who’s left to bear
a heavy heart, weather the pain
that has us part, your look that says
“We made our world a far, far happier,
and kinder place..." 

A summer breeze, making music 

like a piano player idling at the keys

with an artist’s ease, lulling Earth’s

so-restless womb before the breaking

of a storm that’s spreading alarm

amongst the corn; I spot a field mouse,

tiny, quick, soon forgot, needs must

hasten my own tread, the music growing

to a crescendo in my head, like LIFE,

LOVE... Instead, I’ll linger in this place

and to wind and rain, I’ll lift the face 

of one who’s glad he came to see-hear

our history passing into such beauty

as I’ll always cherish for being no less

a part of you-me-us than s the shoes 

I wear, though much worn through a world 

much torn in two, three, and more 

by envy, hate and war, I have to say, kneeling

now to pray (to what or whom, who knows

with certainty until we get to be part

of the poem that's eternity?) Now, though,

dear friend I cannot let you go without 

thanks for today,  its agenda

for lasting peace and love ringing all the truer

for our being together... 

Hope, rippling  summer corn

like the stirrings of a child unborn,

wondering in the womb,

at whatever may lie waiting beyond 

life and tomb

Copyright R. N. Taber 2001, 2021

 [Note: The original version of this poem was written in 1998 and was first published under the title ‘Once More, Dear Friend’ in my collection, Love and Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2001; it has recently been considerably and significantly revised.] RNT

 

A Covid Christmas

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Here in the UK and many homes around the world, people will be wondering how best to spend Christmas, where we should risk seeing family and friends, much as we would love to, while Covid-19 remains active.

No matter how we choose to celebrate Christmas, whether for religious reasons, being with family and friends, or both, it is, like any religious festival, a time for taking stock of any discrepancies between where we are in life and where we hoped or expected to be. 

Religion may well help us find answers, while many who follow another religion (or none at all) invariably face the same questions. 

Most of us are left to find our own answers in our own way, whether guided by Divine inspiration or not. Regular readers may recall the old aborigine I met in Australia; in so far as he pointed me in a direction I had always wanted to follow, but which had been closed to me for various reasons, he was a life-saver. It meant returning to the UK and many things (and people) I had been running away from, but, in time, I would find such peace of mind as I’d felt impossible since leaving school barely five years earlier. 

“I feel so alone,” I remember whingeing. 

“Well, you are not alone now,” he chuckled, “… and two heads are better than one, so let’s see if we can’t set you on the right track, yeah?” I nodded, and he did.  

Every Christmas, I drink a toast to that old man. He is probably long dead by now, but his presence is as real to me as it was all those years ago. That is the wonderful magic of memory; no one ever dies who has been meaningful in our lives. Better still, it allows us to pick and choose, reject unwelcome guests and join together with those who have brought light into our lives.

Many of us will be alone this Christmas, but the Gates of Memory are open 24/7. Besides, there is also telephone. zoom and other technologies to help us out as and when ….

A COVID CHRISTMAS 

Outside, world looking grey
even where sounds of children’s
laughter breaking through
weary faces and muted voices,
reliving such yesteryears
as mind and spirit better able
to redeem a host
more anxious to explore than exploit
Earth Mother 

Outside, a diversity of masks,
driving home the necessity to care
as much for the well-being
of others as any twinned selves
struggling to put caution
before desire rather than throw
either to the wind …
if only to be seen doing the right thing
by humankind 

Inside, a diversity of humanity
making its way down Memory Lane
among fairy lights
and Christmas trees, choir voices
singing songs of praise,
families and friends making merry,
putting aside any misery,
as only such togetherness has succeeded
in all its history 

Outside, Covid-19 hell bent on having a say;
inside, Christmas continues to have its way

Copyright R.N. Taber 2020

 [Note: This post-poem also appears on my gay-interest poetry blog.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prime Time

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

Life experience is a wonderful thing. We should make the best of things and let the worst go the same way as a snowman.

Easier said than done, I hear you say? True. But the alternative is unthinkable. When the going gets rough, we can but work at turning things around. I’m not usually one for clichés…BUT…where there’s a will, there is (invariably) a way. Things DO get better, believe me although, sadly, not always when we need them to the most.

Hang in there, folks! I did, and any negatives are vastly outnumbered by positives. regrets are vastly outnumbered by positives. (Did I say it was easy...?)

PRIME TIME

Seconds, hours,

days, years,

lifting spirits, teasing

the soul,

chasing after butterflies

in summer sunshine,

looking out for rainbows

after autumn rain,

watching the snowmen

melt away,

waiting for springtime

to come again

Turns the wheel slowly,

now faster, slower

creaking like human bones

on a rack pulled 

now this way, now that ...

Though time, it rushes in

and nature. seek cover, 

between a common sun's

rising and setting,

there is love for the taking,

no matter the world,

its ever working us over

So, let’s all be making time

for one another

Copyright R N Taber 2004

[Note: An earlier version of this poems appears in The Third Eye by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2004]