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.

Saturday 30 May 2015

An Affinity with the Spiritual Nature of Ancient Woodlands


Where Earth Mother has held a mirror to human nature for centuries, it is small wonder that even great artists struggle to capture glimpses of its reflection, relying on the inner eye to explore its similes and metaphors just as a space probe might home in on moon craters…

AN AFFINITY WITH THE SPIRITUAL NATURE OF ANCIENT WOODLANDS

Leafy dome, a spread of crystal prisms;
like a familiar cheek deflecting its tears

Stained glassiness, images of a sunset;
pink flesh betraying shades of ageing

Moon, shining through, beacon of hope;
human spirit anxious for inspiration

Stars, drawing on mythology and religion
to engage the human mind’s potential

Clouds, siding with the world’s sceptics
shaping like endings to like beginnings

Dome, engaging with our metamorphoses,
inciting we creative dreamers to waken

Glassiness, flushed with dawn’s promises;
pink flesh, responding to nature’s kisses

Birdsong, like distant bells ringing changes;
humanity, left trailing old gods and new

Between earth and sky, our time and space;
to each of us, a prism (some call it Heaven)


Copyright R. N. Taber 2015

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Thursday 21 May 2015

Flotilla of Remembrance


Today, May 21st 2015, a flotilla of boats will set sail from Ramsgate to mark the 75th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation during World War 2.

This poem is a villanelle.

FLOTILLA OF REMEMBRANCE

To Dunkirk, the little ships did sail
for tens of thousands, backs to the sea;
an awesome task they dare not fail

Its bloody beaches saw hope prevail,
a town on fire, centre-stage for history;
to Dunkirk, the little ships did sail

Ordinary people, answering the call
to play their part for king and country;
an awesome task they dare not fail

Injured and dying due for a miracle
few could believe they would ever see;
to Dunkirk, the little ships did sail

Tens of thousands plucked from hell
under plain sail transcending the ordinary;
an awesome task they dare not fail

Soldiers of Peace, heroes one and all,
applying humanity’s balm, braving its fury;
to Dunkirk, the little ships did sail,
an awesome task they dare not fail


Copyright R. N. Taber 2010; 2015 


[Note: May 27th - June 4th 1940 saw the remarkable rescue of tens of thousands of allied troops trapped under enemy fire on the beaches of Dunkirk. ]

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Tuesday 19 May 2015

Pleading for the Planet


[Update : July 30th 2019: We are still reeling from a week of very hot temperatures here in the UK, worse in other parts of Europe. Naturally, people have rushed to the seaside. However, there is no excuse for the appalling state of some  beaches - litter strewed as far as the eye can see - where those responsible simply could not be bothered to take it home and dispose of it there or at least wait until they could find a litter bin. Whatever happened to social conscience? We are polluting our seas, killing off and causing pain to sea creatures who, sadly, have no say in the matter. Until we all start acting more responsibly, it is not only climate change that will damage civilization as we know it, possibly if not probably beyond repair.]

Many if not most of us take nature for granted and use it to our own advantage at every opportunity as if we have every right to do so.

Meanwhile, I suspect Earth Mother whispers much the same in many an inner ear. Ah, but, hey, anyone listening…? Whose conscience pricking them for taking social responsibility so lightly, if at all?

Who is the guardian of whom, I wonder? We of nature or nature of us? Better, surely, that we work with rather than against each other...?




PLEADING FOR THE PLANET

Listen to the rain
telling tales on people
killing each other

Listen to the trees
telling tales on people
disrespecting them

Listen to the birds
telling tales on people
shooting them down

Listen to the fishes
telling tales on people
poisoning the seas

Listen to the worms
telling tales on people
doctoring the soil

Listen to the wind
telling tales of people
on borrowed time

Listen to the people
pleading for the planet
before it’s too late

Copyright R. N. Taber 2015




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Thursday 14 May 2015

L-O-V-E, Logo for Life


Whatever our ethnicity, creed, gender or sexuality, of all the choices we choose to confirm in life, the most important has to be love…

L-O-V-E, LOGO FOR LIFE

Choose love
for the comfort of old slippers
once rejected for smacking
of growing old, nor (quite) ready
to concede the case
for a comfortable shoe   
replacing the ever toe-pinching
designer variety

Choose love,
rejecting the nagging loneliness
of one-upmanship,
a sense of always having to prove
something to someone
(if not everyone) - everything
a must have, must do, must not
go without

Choose love
among its many shapes and forms;
never discriminate,
but take each at face value,
no trying to shape it
after a fashion to satisfy
some selfish desire that chances
losing it altogether


Choose love;
heat the body by its eternal flame,
be guided by a light
as reassuring to its acolytes
ever imprinting
time and (personal) space
with its logo as any swallow’s cue
to flee winter



Copyright R. N. Taber 2012; 2015

[Note: An earlier version of this poem was previously published on the blog in 2012 under the title as 'Choose Love' .]

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Saturday 9 May 2015

Notes on the Dark Side of Imagination

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

Regular readers will know that I suffer from regular bouts of depression although I usually manage to avoid plunging into The Abyss if only just...

When depression strikes, I am inclined to wallow in misery and self-pity until a natural optimism and love for life (in spite of its erratic ups and downs) brings me to my senses, and once again I feel free to embrace the world as I invariably see it from the shimmering summit of Mount Parnassus.

Inspiration comes from all aspects of nature, including human nature, fickle though these can be until (eventually) I start to make sense of  who I am; my social, sexual, cultural and spiritual identity...all the parts that comprise a person's whole. It is, after all, the whole that counts, with which all of us need to come to terms, each in our own way, and take pride.

Oh, and, yes, I find the task of hitting on an appropriate title to a poem as challenging an art form as the poem itself; yet another positive step in the survival business.

NOTES ON THE DARK SIDE OF IMAGINATION

Now among friends, now left alone,
wandering a gloomy, scary by-way,
thorns like vampires in fields of stone
under a jaundiced sky turning grey

No one in sight, man, woman or child;
gargoyles on Heaven’s outer walls
perpetuating horror, while as beguiled
by such arts for leaving me appalled

Tearing at cloth ears, misery and pain
for the end of a world still enduring
Man’s rape for the sake of Power’s gain,
now at Earth Mother’s final reckoning

How many poets, I dare wonder aloud,
have permitted demons to spawn here,
this fine company of gargoyles, allowed
but a grimace, neither a voice nor tear?

Oh for just one kiss of sun on the face,
or garden smells after downpours,
to empathize with a lark’s winged grace,
speak out against the world’s eyesores

Suddenly, the ghastly mirage is gone,
I am back on track, among friends
whose loyalty and love I shall lean upon
where it’s said the track (finally?) ends


Copyright R. N. Taber 2007


[Note: This poem has been slightly revised from an earlier version that appears in first editions of Accomplice to Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007; revised ed. in e-format in preparation.]


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Monday 4 May 2015

Sunrise

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

The human spirit deserves a voice; it certainly deserves better than any form or dregree of incarceration, self-imposed or otherwise.

Just as many gay boys and girls, men and women worldwide may find it hard to be open about their sexuality, many if not most people (gay or straight) have feelings they are obliged to hide for one reason or another; nothing gives the human spirit its freedom like coming out of hiding, and breaking the silence, self-imposed or otherwise, that drove it there.

SUNRISE

Gagging on the quiet,
blinded by the dark,
not deaf, though, to wolves
howling for blood

Thoughts, vague shapes
like ink blots
on pages charting molehills
to mountains

Moon, no guardian here
but a mythology
written in charcoal, that reads,
 ‘I told you so…’

Stars, hijacked by a night
in fierce deadlock
with Earth Mother and human
vulnerability

Trapped, lost, a no-hoper
being crushed
to nothingness just for asking,
‘What’s the point?’

Enter, dawn’s weepy light,
Apollo’s first take
on Earth Mother and the human  
condition

Risen to breaking silences,
inner eye and ear
awakening like sleepy egg-birds
to find a voice

Copyright R N. Taber 2015









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