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]