One of
the most hurtful things anyone has ever said to me was that I would not see my
friend again after he died because he (being gay) would go to Hell while I
(still in the closet at the time) would be in heaven. Everyone had liked my
friend, including the person who made the comment.
I was
clear about my sexuality at the time, but years of being made to feel some kind
of freak meant that only a few people I trusted knew I was gay. I had distanced myself from religion years earlier so the threat of Hell did not touch me. What did touch and hurt me was the suggestion that gay people should be
punished for their sexuality alone. The more I thought about it, the more I
became convinced that this is utter rubbish. While I don’t believe in a God, as
such, I find comfort, joy and spirituality in nature.
Maybe I
see ‘God’ in nature but prefer to call it something else. Whatever, of this I
am certain; if there is a God along the lines various Holy Books tell us, He
(or She) is no homophobe, Nor is that just the poet in me speaking or even because
I am gay, but what nature tells me every day.
I am
sometimes criticized for ‘getting romantic’ about death. There is, of course, nothing
romantic about dying. At the same time, the experience of loving someone who
has died is one that transcends life, love, and even death. Various socio-cultural-religious
bigots who would have us believe this does not apply to gay lovers are but demonstrating
an incredible ignorance of the human condition.
We live,
we die. Without love and romance, why bother? Moreover, we should remember that
love comes in all shapes and sizes; partner to partner is but one form of
loving albeit one of the most precious. We can make it big in the fame
game or get rich one way or another. But fame lasts only for a select few and
it’s no use to us once we’re dead. Nor can we take a pot of gold to the Great
Beyond.
Ah, but
love… in whatever shape or form...
[Image taken from the Internet]
Gay or straight, love
we get to keep, such is its timelessness.
REACHING OUT WITH MIND-BODY-SPIRIT
You wear
jeans, your shirt is white;
hair, a
crown of gold in the soft twilight
like a
god in fields spring green,
the most
beautiful man I’ve ever seen
I watch
in awe, rooted to the spot
as you
chat with flowers, this tree, that bird
in a
voice as sweet as Pan’s own flute,
the most
beautiful sound I’ve ever heard
I catch
your eye, rush into your arms,
savour
full, moist lips crushed against mine,
a
murmuring of centuries-old charms
turning salt water on my tongue into wine
Too soon
you leave, yet sweeter my agony
for a
love that lends us immortality
[From: Accomplices
to Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007]
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