Sunday 8 February 2015

LGBT, a Global Consciousness


Not so long ago, someone  expressed genuine concern that I will go to hell for being gay and rejecting a ‘decent’ way of life.

The way I see it, we make our own hell here on earth if we so choose. As for any heaven…who knows?

As for LGBT men and women rejecting a decent way of life? Who says so? For a start, people who know no better.

If bigotry - in all its ugly shapes  and forms - is not weighing heavily not on the world's conscience, it damn well should be.

LGBT, A GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Some say there is no room for LGBT
men and women in a place some have chosen  
to call Heaven since no God would condone
the carnality enjoyed by the world’s gay men
and women. (Holy Books, manuals of spirituality,
inspiring judgement on homosexuality…?)

So who are they who rage against LGBT
neighbours brazenly ‘betraying’ a natural gender
to which we are born, love to pit humankind
against its own on the grounds of this culture,
that religion, claiming to fly with doves yet siding
with hawks? Blameless, just human…?

Voices, raging on against an LGBT ethos,
suggesting we can but rely on political correctness
to win the day (no hiding place for hypocrites);
raised voices proclaiming gay men and women
cannot be forgiven their awful ‘sinning’ in the face
of this convention, that culture or religion

Let them speak who claim to know how God
will have His way with men and women who are gay;
no matter who, all humankind deserves a voice
since each of us, gay folks too, blessed with choice
as to what we do, where we go, and how we interpret
Holy Books on peace and love

Too many voices competing with each other
to be heard, obeyed, believed honest, fair and good,
coining the rhetoric of this culture, that religion,
paying a piper to play the tune we all love to hear
who choose to be led by the nose through passages
of time, its corridors of power

Yet, body-mind-spirit offers its human host
no finer wisdom than access to the greater freedom
to be as it would be (not as others might see)
lending conscience and heart a rare peace and love
for an affinity with nature, discovering in its seasons,
a bitter-sweet raison d’ĂȘtre


Copyright R. N. Taber 2015; 2018


Monday 2 February 2015

A Mind of One's Own


In a multicultural society, I have inevitably met gay men and women who feel they cannot be openly gay because the culture in which they remain entrenched is intrinsically homophobic. At the same time, I have also met many who have, in all conscience, acknowledged to themselves and the world that they are gay and remain determined to be true to their nature, often without turning their backs on their socio-cultural-religious history even where family and/or peers see being gay as a betrayal of all they have been taught to hold dear, and gay people outcasts.

To the less tolerant I can but ask, should we not cherish those we profess to love above all else, give peace and love a chance…?

Whatever, the old saying that all roads lead to Rome is misleading in so far as it is up to each and everyone of us which paths we take in life and where that path takes us, whatever or colour, creed, sex or sexuality.  We are individuals and need to find a way to shrug off would-be manipulative forces, invariably practised by those who  mean well and think they know what is best for us, but haven't a clue, not least because they are directing us in a direction they would take, failing to appreciate that we are all different and, yes, have minds of our own. 

The greater human tragedy is that where we are (too) often judged and misjudged simply for being ourselves, divisions become chasms everyone yearns to cross but (too) many people have no idea how. Sexuality is but one catalyst for chasms of course. Bridges are there for anyone to cross  if they so chooses; it is just a question of love, and putting it first instead of letting it come a poor second to ego and its associated preconceptions, most if not all of which are inclined to wreck rather than build (let alone cross) any bridges.

 A MIND OF ONE’S OWN  

Pausing at a bar, watching
lots of gay people having (such) fun,
long to join in, but cannot see
any way to confessing that I am gay,
leaving my gloomy closet

Walking away in the rain,
at a frantic pace, no place to go
where I can relax, feel free
to really be myself, no invisible person
on a cold closet shelf

Soaking wet, don’t give a damn,
nature lashing out for the coward
I am, the gamut I’ll not chance,
to run, demanding I reclaim mind, body,
and spirit for my own 

How can I let people down,
betray expectations of me inscribed
on tablets of stone from birth
to death if only because that’s the way
it has always been…?

Not simple at all, a complex
web of political history and culture,
bottling up human nature
for select distribution, claiming a cure-all
and calling it religion

Yes, I am gay, but not sick
or some sinner needing to repent,
and why should any God
have us deny any part of a whole they say
He created, who revile us?

Returning to the bar, watching
lots of gay people having such fun,
and join them, determined
to get a life (no matter what) not die alone
in a cold, gloomy closet

Copyright R. N. Taber 2015