Promising to press ahead with plans for same-sex marriages, Liberal Democrat Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone has said in The Daily Telegraph that she does not believe The Church has the exclusive right to say who can marry. While acknowledging the issue provokes strong feelings, she adds that the State is entitled to make changes to the union, and that the Church did not 'own' marriage.
Since I subscribe to no religion, I do not have strong feelings on the matter. As far as I am concerned, a Civil Partnership is the same as a civil marriage. However, it will please gay Christians who would then be able to marry in any church besides the United Reformed Church that has been conducting same sex marriages for years. Just because I reject religion doesn’t mean to say I don’t acknowledge its importance to those for whom it is integral to their way of life. [It isn’t religion that I constantly attack, but the hypocrisy of many who choose to interpret (any) religion to suit their own personal agendas.]
In recent years, I have written poems for friends and others celebrating their civil partnerships, and here are a few of them, all villanelles:
A SONG FOR GAY LOVERS
It
doesn’t matter that we’re gay,
our love
is pure;
whatever
people say, it will endure
It
doesn’t matter that we’re gay,
happiness
is ours;
day by
day, winging heaven’s towers
It
doesn’t matter that we’re gay,
time is
on our side;
ebb or
flow, let golden hours decide
It
doesn’t matter that we’re gay,
we can
dream too;
come what
may, we’ll see it through
It doesn’t
matter that we’re gay,
our love
is pure;
whatever
people say, we will endure
[From: Accomplices to Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007]
Watch dark clouds roll away,
Apollo smiling down
on a very special wedding day
Share kisses like a Falls spray
greeting heaven;
watch dark clouds roll away
No matter what some may say,
love wears poetry’s crown
on a very special wedding day
Love doesn’t care if we’re gay,
gladly takes us for its own;
watch dark clouds roll away
Writing love lines in life’s clay,
never to disown…
on a very special wedding day
In love, peace, come what may,
twin doves never alone;
watch dark clouds roll away
on a very special wedding day
[From: On
the Battlefields of Love by
R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010]
FREE
SPIRITS
To Earth
Mother, joy among tears
wherever
we run
the gamut
of life’s fears
Keeping
faith with friendly trees,
embracing
every one;
To Earth
Mother, joy among tears
Come
glorious sunsets on pastures
pink and
green…
the gamut
of life’s fears
Choice,
all humankind gladly frees
to be
true to its own;
To Earth
Mother, joy among tears
Peace
(nature too) will find enemies
where its
colours run
the gamut
of life’s tears
Gay love,
blessed by summer kisses,
a bid for
freedom won!
To Earth
Mother, joy among tears,
the gamut
of life’s fears
[From: On the Battlefields of Love by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010]
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