Rewards

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

This poem first appeared on the blog in March 2009. It is repeated here today especially for ‘Ric’ and ‘Gemma’ who contacted me about the poem and to relate how they have tragically lost their respective partners during recent years.

Words can never say enough. I can but hope the poem speaks for itself and will help, in some small way, to ease the pain of losing a loved one.

If love has a season, it is an eternal springtime of the heart... for everyone, both sexes, all ages; nor does it (ever) discriminate.

So never wait for spring to feel love in the air, and give in to its persuasion.

REWARDS

In a spring breeze
I'll run my fingers through your hair,
the love in your eyes
my reason for being alive

In a summer twilight
I let your lips play a sweet love song
on my heartstrings
to remind me I’m still alive

In an autumn cascade
I can feel us falling like leaves of red
and gold, nature’s way
of preparing to stay alive

In a winter snowfall
I’m so wrapped up warm in your body,
the heat of our love
my reward for being alive

No season passes
when you don’t take me in your arms,
fill me with the joy
that’s risen from your grave

Some say love is not for gay dreamers,
but Earth Mother has other ideas

Copyright R. N. Taber 2008

Publish and be Damned (Welcome to my World)

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

Regular readers will know that I see gay-interest and general poetry as voices of the same genre; it has always been important to me to include both as I do on my Google Plus site. Moreover, while being gay is an integral part of any gay person’s identity, it is only a part. I, for one, get fed up with people ignoring the other parts as if our sexuality is all that matters.

I started the blog some 10 years ago to give gay people a voice where relatively few voices have gone before in the poetry genre. Hopefully, too, it may give non-gay readers an enlightening insight into the whole gay ethos where, far too often, stereotypes and various socio-cultural-religious conventions provide an unhelpful distraction.

Many of you will recognise an old chestnut of a post here. The poem first appeared here on my gay-interest  blog in 2008. 

Sadly, in many parts of the world, including the UK, it is rare to see two gay men holding hands in the street, let alone kissing. Yet...why shouldn't we? Straight couples do it all the time and no one seems to mind much here when women kiss in public.

It cheers me immensely whenever I see two men or women, plainly in love, demonstrating their feelings in public. It is unfair and wrong that we guys are, more often then not, afraid to do so. Whatever happened to equality, eh? If some people are offended, that's their problem. 

Until we can not only go public but also demonstrate our feelings for each other without fear of prejudice raising its ugly head and shooting off its mouth at us, anywhere, in the world, the whole Gay/Human Rights ethic will continue to have a hollow ring to it. I often listen to the 24/7 BBC TV News channel while I am working on the computer. I hear much talk about inequality and oppression bur rarely are gay issues aired or even mentioned.  I may have missed it but not once in the recent General Election here did I hear a candidate suggest that more should be done to help gay men and women feel more at ease in societies world-wide. [Some do, of course, especially here London. But a lot still don’t and, yes, even here in London.]

This is the 21^st century, for goodness sake! It’s high time less enlightened elements in societies world-wide got real, stopped hiding behind various socio-cultural-religious excuses and began working together towards an expression of common humanity which is, after all the foundation of everything good about society, culture and religion. Where it isn’t, it darn well should be. 

By the way, anyone interested in my fiction blog (serialising several of my gay-interest as well as general novel might care to visit:

https://rogertaberfiction.blogspot.com/2016/05/news-updates-fiction.html

PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED (WELCOME TO MY WORLD)

We strolled hand in hand,

my love and I like millions of lovers

under the same sky,

yet we were cautioned by two cops,

warned we were likely to offend

(not breaking any laws)

since not everyone agrees

that gays deserve the same rights

as others

We may well be attacked

for our sexuality, the cops observed

with wry concern;

not everyone shares our morality

and some may take it personally

(an affront to religion?)

while others will be culturally

opposed to same sex lovers finding

heaven

The cops moved on, we too,

still holding hands, even pausing

now and then for a kiss

and, yes, some folks called us names,

others waves rolled umbrellas

(weren’t cheering us on)

but most people were more inclined

to raise a grudging smile than

be seen to frown

It‘s publish and be damned, my love and I,

among millions under the same sky

[From: On the Battlefields of Love by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010]

Among Secrets Of The Heart?

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

No one likes secrets. Even so, many if not most of us have some. Sadly, even in this sorry looking 21st century of ours, many gay people feel obliged to keep their sexuality a secret for all kinds of reasons; family/ peer pressure, state persecution in some countries, potential career damage…whatever. It’s all the more refreshing therefore when someone - especially a young - person in the public eye comes out to the media and, for the most part, people wish him or her well.

Not so long ago, TV’s Pop Idol winner Will Young came out. Now X Factor winner Joe McElderry has followed in his footsteps. Significantly, the majority of viewers who had already taken these young men to their hearts continue to wish them well in their lives generally as well as singing careers.

All credit to Joe (who admits to having kissed plenty of girls) for discovering and telling us that ’I’m really happy. Now I know who I really am.’

Let’s all wish Joe and Will every success in life, yeah?

AMONG SECRETS OF THE HEART?

Who does not guard secrets of the heart
they dare nor reveal, fearing rejection
by the object of their affection and desire,
lighting a fire in us we dare not share
(can but warm ourselves and take comfort
from each rising flame of unrequited love,
loneliness by any other name)?

Oh, to love and be loved in return, the fire
burn higher, fiercer still, in two hearts
instead of one. Yet, what can we do but keep
the secret safe? How to live, knowing
for sure we love in vain, nothing worthwhile
to hope for but kindness and a chance smile
kindling our pain, exposed for a fool?

If gay people can find a courage of heart
to come out, stand up and be counted
for who they are and all they stand for,
why not a straight person too? No one
can tell us what to do. Our decision. Quit
the lonely hearth, though it serve us well,
or make of heaven a hell on earth?

Better, surely, to let love’s secrets go free,
regardless of race, creed, sex, sexuality?

Copyright R. N. Taber 2010

[From: On the Battlefields Of Love by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010]

Holiday Snaps for the Photo Album

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

Although not written until 2000, the occasion today’s poem celebrates took place in the 1980's. There was still a lot of homophobia about here in the UK in those days (significantly less in your face now, mostly driven underground by Political Correctness!)

Years ago, a sunny weekend in Blackpool turned out to be a refreshing change in more ways than one …

HOLIDAY SNAPS FOR THE PHOTO ALBUM

Side by side, we met the tide,
plunged into the sea
and swam with the fishes;
now dipping, diving, risen again,
my love and me

Hand in hand, we crossed
the sand, smiling
at everyone; nudge-nudge,
wink-wink on our backs, hotter
than the sun

We stayed just long enough
to gather up our stuff
and stroll the daily gamut,
pausing for a kiss - to oblige
the local press

We hit page three, you and me;
Breakfast  was strained
at the B and B till one guest
declared, a fine pair we made,
and the rest cheered

Over greasy eggs and bacon
and mugs of stewed tea,
we grinned happily, enjoying
a grand vacation, my gay love
and me...

Copyright R. N. Taber 2001; 2014

[Note: An earlier version of this poems appears under the title 'Wish You Were Here' in Love and Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2000]