A Poet's Blog: Roger N.Taber shares his thoughts & poems...

Thoughts and observations by English poet Roger N. Taber, a retired librarian and poet-novelist.- "Ethnicity, Religion, Gender, Sexuality ... these are but parts of a whole. It is the whole that counts." RNT [NB While I have no wish to create a social network, I will always reply to critical emails about my poetry. Contact: rogertab@aol.com].

Name:
Location: London, United Kingdom

Sadly, a bad fall in 2012 has left me with a mobility problem, and being diagnosed with prostate cancer the same year hasn't helped, but I get out and about with my trusty walking stick as much as I can, take each day as it comes and try to keep looking on the bright(er) side of life. Many of my poems reflect the need to nurture a positive-thinking mindset whatever life throws at us.

Monday 27 June 2011

Road Signs OR Winging with Doves

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

Travelling hopefully, we make our way through life.

Go carefully, but trust your instincts and never be afraid to take any risks mind-body-spirit might suggest. Okay, so that might be a mistake sometimes, but better to make a mistake, surely, than live with a lifetime of regret? Besides, everyone makes mistakes so ... what the heck, so long as no great harm done (except maybe to the ego)?

ROAD SIGNS or WINGING WITH DOVES

It was a bright light led me to this place,
as I fought for breath in a mother’s womb,
painting dreams of peace, glory, grace,
winging with doves at a warrior’s tomb

Fading, a light that led me to this place
as I took my first breath outside the womb,
painting dreams of peace, glory, grace,
winging with doves at a warrior’s tomb?

It’s a long road that led me to this place,
some may call it destiny, other fate or doom,
but although my sight dims, I see a face,
lighting up with love over its womb-tomb

Who watches out for its peace, glory, grace,
journeys well from first to last resting place

Copyright R. N. Taber 2008

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Thursday 23 June 2011

Blackbird Has Spoken

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

[Update 5/5/17: I am 71 now, have been living with the prostate cancer for 6+ years and still eluding the Grim Reaper thanks to hormone therapy. I still avoid social media, but all e-mails welcome and answered...except any trolls whom I simply delete!] RT

I have always made it clear that I will not post comments as I think they clutter a blog (yes, even the nice, intelligent ones) so please do not be offended when you receive notification that your comment has been deleted. Nor do I have time to go on Twitter or Facebook except to link my blogs as some readers have requested. [I will never return to social media having had experience of trolls.]

To be honest, on-line social networking never was my ‘thing’ but I am always happy to exchange emails if I have their email address or there is a contact button on their blog so I can at least thank them for their comment/s. I always reply to emails. (My email address is in the Blog’s introductory paragraph.) I have enjoyed a regular exchange of emails with some readers for several years now. So feel free to let me know what you think of either or both blogs and, yes, I can take constructive criticism of the chin.

I am doing fine with the prostate cancer treatment, but I’m 65 (born 1945) and get tired so need to rest a lot. I try to write up my blogs after discovering that I get withdrawal symptoms on days I don’t.... I am also struggling with writing Book Three of my gay-crime trilogy (Blasphemy-Sacrilege-Redemption) as well as preparing new editions of my poetry collections (with revisions to some poems) and proofing my second Fred Winter novel in case Catching Up With Murder (2010) .sells at least moderately well. In addition, as I live on my own, there is always shopping, cooking, cleaning etc. to be done and I especially like to spend as much time with friends as possible.

Meanwhile...

Oh, how bright mornings can fill even sleepyheads a feisty passion that demands partners stay in bed a little longer ... if only on the pretext of caving in to the cat’s refusal to budge from its favourite spot on the duvet.

Ah, but blackbird has indeed spoken ... calling on everyone , especially in societies fractured by socio-cultural-religious differences to pull together and remember that our differences do not make us different, only human,.


BLACKBIRD HAS SPOKEN

Blackbird
on a leafy, swaying branch...
A forefinger coaxing
tired nipples...
Chirpy young sparrows rippling
our personal space

Feisty fingers
at shirts, belts, stubborn zips;
late spring scents
teasing far suppler thighs
than ours and, yes,
we’ll miss that train,
the board meeting
at ten - and leave the curtains
open, closing eyes 
for a blackbird’s renewed joy
at such a coming alive;
common body,
three-in-one, grave decisions
celebrating acts
of redemption, blackbird’s
finest hour, throat throbbing,
wings flexing

Now, in full flight,
flung free of tree and branch
to sweeps of sky;
will settle soon enough
but never for less again
than this

Copyright R. N. Taber 2005; 2017

[Note: Slightly revised from the original version that appears in A Feeling for the Quickness of Time by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2005.]

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Tuesday 21 June 2011

The Horse Whisperer

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

This poem has not appeared on the blog since 2008 and is repeated today especially for 'Clive and Kate' who have recently retired to live by '...the love of our lives, the sea.' Oh, but I am so jealous.

Now, Regular readers will know that I have a passion for nature from which I take what I like to think is a strong sense of spirituality. For me, personally, religion offers nothing. At the same time, who’s to say the power and glory some attribute to ‘God’ does not belong to Nature? My understanding of God is that He is everywhere, but I cannot go along with the idea of a personified God or supreme power so all my senses feel inclined to embrace nature instead. I have felt this way since childhood, long before I became aware of my sexuality. [Just as well, I guess...]

Whatever, we should respect each other’s points of view instead of constantly sniping at them and fighting over them. [I am often accused of sniping at world religions, but if you read my preambles and poems carefully, you will see it is the hypocrisy and bigotry on which so many so-called ‘religious’ people feed - not infrequently with undisguised relish - that I am attacking.]

Incidentally, I started writing this poem on Brighton beach in 2007 and finished it on the train back to London the same day.

(Photo from The Internet)

THE HORSE WHISPERER

Foaming passions crashing down
on this, my art

God’s stallions on a last ditch run
of poetry…

Apollo, master-catcher, anxious
to break us in

Ghosts in the frame calling us out
in heaven’s name

Salty tears, a sandman’s labours
all but won

Lead palomino rears, cries, bows,
spirit unbroken

Leaning forward to bend its ear,
I, the horse whisperer

[Brighton (E. Sussex, UK) September 2007]

[From: Accomplices to Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007]

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