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.

Thursday 2 May 2013

Defining Moments .

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

How many time have you heard someone say about someone that he or she doesn’t stand a chance of succeeding at this or that because they are too small or too tall, too young or too old, not well enough known or connected or not good looking enough or don’t have enough experience or qualifications.etc…?

Ah, but never underestimate the powers of the human spirit or be too quick to dismiss the old adage, ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way.’

Now, I am not a religious person, but was raised as a Christian and know my Bible. I have since learned that all the Holy Books have much in common; God is a hero, humanity heroic, and everyday life recognised for what it is, the greatest story ever told.

DEFINING MOMENTS

I watched a small red boat
riding waves on a big blue sea;
suddenly, it occurred to me
that small can be big, depending
on whatever our perception,
a popular misconception being
that little is helpless against
a far mightier charge, as small
is to large. Who cannot recall
tales of David  against Goliath
and Samson beating Delilah
at her own game, taken for fools
on a roll call of heroes

Who knows? Sailors on a small
red boat may yet prove themselves
equally worthy. Let’s not forget
that who laughs last laughs longest
nor is best always found among
strongest, for where wisdom lies
and purpose, sheer will defies
any need to avoid where lions feed
as Daniel in the den discovered
and young Isaac to the block tied,
wise men, too, and shepherds
mo less blind to the art of metaphor
than Paul on the Damascus road

A small red boat in a storm
may well defy all odds against
fending off its cries and fury,
come into its own, return home
(as I stay muzzled at the helm
of a grander vessel by far, deemed
fated to follow orders and trust
in my betters to always know best?)
For good or ill, let’s take a turn 
at the Wheel and chance surviving
the re-telling of a tale already
re-worked by idiots, all but lost
and signifying next to nothing

Copyright R. N. Taber 2004; 2011; 2018

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears as ‘Fools’ Paradise’ in The Third Eye by R. N. Taber Assembly Books, 2004.]

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Wednesday 1 May 2013

The Zen of Personal Space

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

Sometimes we get lost in a scary, all but surreal landscape of conflicting emotions through which we cannot see our way clear to any safe haven. 

At such times, we need to call upon the inner self to step back from it all, create our own space, set mind, body and spirit free of temporal concerns just long enough to at least draw us a map that will guide us back into the real world..

We all need to take care that certain socio-cultural-religious obligations don't make such demands on us that mind-body-spirit is left screaming, "Please. just let me BE!" while other things (and people) that matter to us simply pass us by...

THE ZEN OF PERSONAL SPACE 

Looking for a shortcut to nowhere,
found a pretty little road
that turned out to be nothing more
than a dead end at a ring of dark water,
no way round

Tossing stones in a ring of dark water,
nothing much else to do
but watch ever-widening circles
pass out of sight like poetic  shadows
in a weepy, leafy, light

Among poetic shadows in a leafy light,
a face darting in and out
like the Cheshire Cat in a classic take
on escapism from the chaos of our reality
into sheer pandemonium

No escape, only ever-widening circles
across a ring of dark water,
subject to the swing of a human arm,
measure of a human eye, raging of a beast
left impotent by despair

Surely, plaintive cries growing weaker
like ripples on a ring of dark water
chasing The Cat into the same nowhere
that’s begging a shortcut, brief respite 
for mind-body-spirit

Past-present-future engaging the senses
to suss the integrity of  imagination,
let ripples in a leafy light lent us by whim
or other of nature 's moods suggest a way yet 
to cross a ring of dark water


Copyright R. N. Taber 2013 [Rev. + Alt title 2/19]

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Sunday 28 April 2013

The Mind Hears, the Heart Listens

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Yes, we should probably do what our heads tell us more often, but it’s invariably so much more fun (and human) to follow our hearts. True, it can be a risky business but some risks are always worth taking, and love is one of them.

Love comes in all shapes and sizes, expresses itself in countless ways,  probably has a finer grasp of what life (and time?) is really all about than even the most learned mind will ever know.

This poem is a villanelle.

THE MIND HEARS, THE HEART LISTENS

Where Time has its way
with each of us,
Love will always have a say

Eyes shut, cold clay,
no sweet caress
where Time has its way

Fear not the close of day
(waking to emptiness?)
Love will always have a say

Duty, too, its passion may
well speak up for us
where Time has its way

On dark secrets kept at bay
(haunts of fear and lies)
Love will always have a say

Eternity but a breath away
from a cynic’s kiss;
where Time has its way,
Love will always have a say

Copyright R. N. Taber 2005; 2012

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in A Feeling For The Quickness Of Time by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2005.]

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Saturday 27 April 2013

Spring Sunshine

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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 1st eds. of Accomplices to Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007; 2nd (revised) e-edition in preparation.]

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Friday 26 April 2013

Shades of Hamlet OR Undertow

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Update: (April 23 2016) William Shakespeare - The Bard - died 400 years ago today yet his plays and poetry live on; they are timeless if only because they embrace not only the human condition apropos the individual, but also its universality.

William Shakespeare

As well as wonderful poetry and great entertainment, Shakespeare’s plays positively buzz with philosophy.

Yes, ‘The play’s the thing!’ the Bard has Hamlet say. So what ‘thing’ is that then? To ‘catch the conscience of a king’, yes, but what else…?

If life is a play and we but players in it, perhaps Shakespeare hits closer to home when he has Macbeth cry: ‘…Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player/ that struts and frets his hour upon the stage/ and then is heard no more; it is a tale/ told by an idiot, full of sound and fury/ signifying nothing.’

William Faulkner takes up the same theme in The Sound and the Fury that has to be one of the great novels of the 20th century.

As for the rest of us, only a select few are likely to leave giant footprints, but when it comes to developing a sense of direction and purpose in life, there’s nothing to stop us at least trying to be guided by them…is there?  As for being male or female, gay, straight, bisexual or transgender, as I make the point so often in my gay-interest blog...our differences do not make us different, only human.

SHADES OF HAMLET or UNDERTOW

Time, time! A shifting, sifting play
on love and death - warring, scoring,
giving and partly giving;
urges better things, tugs at lesser
strengths, all finer struggle
caught in undertow

Now, sun in the water dazzles me
splendid heavens. Dove circling saintly
dives on a crumb;
willows weeping for each star fallen,
ebb tide grieves
me home

Home, home! A shifting, sifting play
on love and death - warring, scoring,
giving and partly giving;
urges us to better things, tugs at lesser
strengths, all finer struggle
caught in undertow

Copyright R. N. Taber 2000; 2012

[Note: A slightly different version of this poem appears in Love and Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2000;  revised ed. in e-format in preparation].

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Thursday 25 April 2013

A Kindness of Ghosts

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

Many people say they find  religious festivals very depressing; everyone comes together in the spirit of their religion for only a short while, and then we all start fighting amongst ourselves again, nations as well as families; nations wherever there are meddling politicians and fundamentalist clerics trying to put one over on each other and everyone else and families divided for various reasons, not least what they see as some members creating a cultural divide between old and new ways of life.

Whatever, we can only do our best to make sure that socio-cultural-religious differences do not undermine us; there will always be peace and love somewhere and in someone that we can turn to whenever it looks like they might succeed. Alive or dead, near or far, they will always be people and/or events inspiring us to overcome even the worst this world may throw at us for as long as we leave the door of our hearts open to them and never let anyone or anything provoke us into slamming it shut for the sake of any socio-cultural-religious persuasion.

We are a common humanity whose differences (as I have said so often and will say again) do not make any one of us different, only human, regardless of colour, creed, sex or sexuality.

Here’s wishing you all Happy Days, not just at festive times, but always.

A KINDNESS OF GHOSTS

Seabirds, making
graceful flight;
missiles, closing in
on us

Homeowners striving
for a good tan;
refugees having to settle
for staying alive

Jagged rocks along
the seashore;
spent shells among
daisies on a lawn

Children crying over
lost sandcastles;
sorry world, weeping
at mass graves

Climate change across
land, sea and air;
nature, despairing at
our despair

Love, hope and peace
but as ghosts…
kept busy haunting our
better selves

Copyright R. N. Taber 2005; 2013
  
[Note: The poem has been (very) slightly revised from a version that first appeared in CC&D, Scars Publications (US) September 2005 and subsequently in Accomplices to Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007.]

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Monday 22 April 2013

C'est Magnifique (In any Language)

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

Now, regular readers will know I have written many love poems, often with my late partner in mind, but not with heavy sadness or regret but immense thankfulness for the relatively short time we had together many years ago when I was still in my early 20's ....

At the same time, as always, I try to ’open up’ my poems to lift them beyond the personal so that anyone can access and follow reflective thoughts of their own. (Win some, lose some.) 

C'EST MAGNIFIQUE (IN ANY LANGUAGE)

No grief
finer than a kiss, inflicting
mortality on this body
that's barely spent with our
lovemaking, caressing
lips with secret smile, seeking
the Creator, Destroyer
in us all with Delilah’s gall,
starry-eyed Samson set up
for star pupil

No madness
in the weirdest shadows
flirting with twilight,
teasing the sun’s embers
with a scattering of stars
brighter by far than the eyes
haunting this mortal frame;
only sadness for a leaf,
that's fallen here at our feet
before its time

No tears
(a misty rain in the wind)
nor cries from the heart
but a nightingale for others
of our kind, covering us
like a death sheet as a mark
of respect for this ultimate
reckoning, proud Cassiopeia
sharing out gifts among regrets
like falling stars

Ah, c'est magnifique

Copyright R. N. Taber 1999; 2011

[Note: an earlier version of this poem  appeared under the title 'Affairs of the Heart' in the anthology, A United Voice, Poetry Now (Forward Press) 1999 and the poetry magazine Fire (17) in 2002 as well as my first major collection, Love and Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2001. Fire has since ceased publication, but can still be accessed on-line via the Poetry Library archives.]

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