http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
From time to time, teachers ask me if they can use one of my poems to help kick-start a debate on contemporary issues; it might be on street crime, bullying, political and/or religious issues, whatever. Occasionally, I am asked to send a selection of my poems on a gay theme. Only recently, a teacher reported back to say how today’s poem and another (Ode To A School Cap) ‘inspired a very lively debate on sexuality and gay issues.’ I was thrilled. It was especially nice for me as the teachers adds, ‘A few days later two pupils came up to me on separate occasions to say they had borrowed one of your collections from the local public library.’
Regular readers will know I believe very strongly that discussing gay issues in schools (including Faith Scgools) and colleges is the best if not the only way to put down all the misleading, outdated and often offensive stereotypes that continue to attach themselves to gay men and women in the minds of the less enlightened among us, especially in the context of world cultures /religions. While gay issues are all but ignored in schools, many gay young people will continue to resist and suppress an awakening sexuality while many heterosexual young people (especially boys) will grow up in an atmosphere that, by default, not only condones and but actively encourages homophobia.
We are living in the 21st century, for goodness sake! Yes, gay and transgender people are better off than when I was at school, but something needs to be done NOW about a rising tide of homophobia and other socio-cultural-religious prejudices across the world and schools should not shy away from placing themselves in the front line where educating the less enlightened among the heterosexual majority is concerned.
SEXUALITY, LIFE FORCE
Once, I met a young man by a river
under a leafy awning of willow;
in a summer’s heat I could but shiver
nor would my lips frame a ‘hello’
We glimpsed a kingfisher on fair wing,
a flash of breast. colour of his eyes;
in one body. we watched its descending,
as if a blessing on nature’s surprise
We found a voice and let it lay us down,
river anxious we should hear a story
about desire and sex, seeds for sowing
and nurturing as inspire nature’s glory
Come twilight, we went our separate ways,
glimpses of gay love, a life force always
Copyright R. N. Taber 2007; 2010
[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in Accomplices To Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007.]
From time to time, teachers ask me if they can use one of my poems to help kick-start a debate on contemporary issues; it might be on street crime, bullying, political and/or religious issues, whatever. Occasionally, I am asked to send a selection of my poems on a gay theme. Only recently, a teacher reported back to say how today’s poem and another (Ode To A School Cap) ‘inspired a very lively debate on sexuality and gay issues.’ I was thrilled. It was especially nice for me as the teachers adds, ‘A few days later two pupils came up to me on separate occasions to say they had borrowed one of your collections from the local public library.’
Regular readers will know I believe very strongly that discussing gay issues in schools (including Faith Scgools) and colleges is the best if not the only way to put down all the misleading, outdated and often offensive stereotypes that continue to attach themselves to gay men and women in the minds of the less enlightened among us, especially in the context of world cultures /religions. While gay issues are all but ignored in schools, many gay young people will continue to resist and suppress an awakening sexuality while many heterosexual young people (especially boys) will grow up in an atmosphere that, by default, not only condones and but actively encourages homophobia.
We are living in the 21st century, for goodness sake! Yes, gay and transgender people are better off than when I was at school, but something needs to be done NOW about a rising tide of homophobia and other socio-cultural-religious prejudices across the world and schools should not shy away from placing themselves in the front line where educating the less enlightened among the heterosexual majority is concerned.
SEXUALITY, LIFE FORCE
Once, I met a young man by a river
under a leafy awning of willow;
in a summer’s heat I could but shiver
nor would my lips frame a ‘hello’
We glimpsed a kingfisher on fair wing,
a flash of breast. colour of his eyes;
in one body. we watched its descending,
as if a blessing on nature’s surprise
We found a voice and let it lay us down,
river anxious we should hear a story
about desire and sex, seeds for sowing
and nurturing as inspire nature’s glory
Come twilight, we went our separate ways,
glimpses of gay love, a life force always
Copyright R. N. Taber 2007; 2010
[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in Accomplices To Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007.]
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