On with the Motley OR Nature and Human Nature, in the Round

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

The closest I come to any religious sense of spirituality is in considering myself a Pantheist. While the idea of a personified God is an anathema to me, I can envisage God as nature or even Earth Mother; for a start, a mixed gender God is more likely to have our spiritual survival at heart.

As a gay man, I resent various socio-cultural-religious groups arguing that I cannot possibly nurture and treasure the sense of spirituality I hold dear. For my part, I would argue that no religion has a monopoly on spirituality since the human spirit generates its own, regardless. Moreover, a bond with nature, for as long as I can remember, both confirms and nurtures this sense of spirituality in me that I once sought but never found in religion. Besides, I cannot envisage any God that would reject anyone on the grounds of their sexuality, not because I am gay, but because God has to be bigger than human ... well, doesn't He or She, whom I once read or heard  somewhere referred to as "The Torchbearer."

As each day closes for a night of preparing for dawn - and vice versa - we hopefully anticipate the next performance; and so it goes on with life, death, love and nature tracking The Torchbearer across time and space ...

ON WITH THE MOTLEY or NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE, IN THE ROUND

See late evening clouds billowing

bulbous folds of a Big Top

Leafy shapes performing in trees;

trapeze artistes in sequins

Spring breeze rippling through it all;

old gods and new, laughing…

Sun’s last blushes on a white dove;

paint on the face of a clown

Lovers in best complimentary seats

enjoying candy floss kisses

Faces shutting down (show's over),

parading back into their cages

Nature poetry, playing ring master

to the greatest show on earth

Copyright R. N. Taber 2012; 2018

[Note: This poem has been slightly revised (several times) since first appearing under the title 'On with the Motley' in Tracking the Torchbearer by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2012.]