https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
[Update, Sept 19, 2019: Today, the British Library confirmed that the link blow to the 4th plinth reading in 1999 is no longer available as the video is incompatible with an updated IT system. However, I am assured that the video still exists, and B L hope to make it available to the public again one day. Fingers crossed, and watch this space.] RNT
http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100223121732/oneandother.co.uk/participants/Roger_T [I am always being asked for this link to my poery reading on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square, my contribution to sculptor Antony Gormley's One and Other 'live' sculpture during the summer of 1999. For now, at least, this link needs the latest Adobe Flash Player and works best in Firefox; the archives website cannot run Flash but changes scheduled for later this year may well mean the link will open without it. Ignore any error message and give it a minute or so to start up. The video lasts an hour. ] RT 3/18
This post is duplicated on both blogs today for obvious reasons.
Now, most feedback from readers is very positive, but every now and then someone complains. A reader has been in touch to say ‘Posting gay poetry on the Internet, to which young people have ready access, is not only inappropriate but also a corrupting influence.’ While I disagree (of course) he or she is welcome to their point of view.
Does the average heterosexual really think there are no young gay people out there, I wonder? I was young once, even if it is more long ago than I care to remember.
What do you think? You might even want to comment on the British Library site where both blogs are listed as part of a project to archive on-line material alongside the printed word? Is it worth archiving a poetry blog, especially one that encourages gay people world-wide to feel good about their sexuality and promotes Gay Awareness?
Go to: http://www.webarchive.org.uk/ukwa/advancedsearch
and carry out a URL (or title) search for:
http://aspectsofagaymanslifeinverse.blogspot.com/ (G-A-Y in the Subject Field)]#
http://rogertab.blogspot.com// (A Poet’s Blog)
Meanwhile...
Hopefully, readers who complain that I rely too heavily on rhyme and should write more blank verse will appreciate the form of today’s poem as well as its content.
If any of you use a datebook, you might also care to click on the link below; it will take you to Scars Publications (USA) who have published a number of my blank verse poems over a period of some 10 years. They tend to only publish blank verse so keep me on my toes and lure me away from rhyme now and then.
http://scars.tv/
Click on their Scars Publications 2012 Poetry Datebook and you will see what it's all about. They have accepted the poem below for inclusion; it will appear on the entry for World AIDS Day, Dec 1st 2012. (I deliberately did not make it a gay-interest poem. It is high time people stopped thinking of HIV-AIDS as The Gay Plague!!)
OVERHEARD ON A TRAIN:
WOMAN: It takes a real man to be sexually responsible.
MAN: It takes a real woman to insist a man is sexually responsible.
ME (thinks): It takes real maturity to say ‘no’ to unprotected sex.
Oh, yes, and it takes a clear-headed person to take sexual responsibility on board so let’s not get so drunk or high we lose the plot, okay?
Now, regular readers will know I am passionate about DAMSET, an HIV-AIDS Educational Trust based in the seaside town of Bournemouth that has set a wonderful example to the rest of the world by creating a memorial mural to all those - gay and straight - who have died of AIDS across Dorset. I was unable to attend the inauguration last December, appropriately on World AIDS Day, but feel very privileged that a poem I wrote for the project has been included in the mural. [I included in my reading on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square in July 2009; see link at the top of this page.]
Visitors to Bournemouth for years to come will be able to see the mural for themselves near the pier entrance. It is a wonderful way to remember people and also promote Gay Awareness as well as sexual responsibility.
For more information about DAMSET see: http://damset.co.uk/
Straight or gay, many people (especially young people) seem to think HIV-AIDS is little more than a scare story and does not concern them...until it becomes the story of their life.
Have fun but...be careful out there, yeah? Play safe. Otherwise you not only risk catching the virus yourself but giving it to others. Either way, it’s plain irresponsible.
CARRIERS
I should have had the test,
never thought it could happen
to couples like us
Now we have to tell people
(who’ll think the worst of me)
we are HIV positive
I’m just an Ordinary Joe,
struggling to pay off a mortgage
and still have a life;
I love to party (who doesn’t?)
and, yes, there were a few times
I dropped my guard,
forgot low risk doesn’t mean
there’s no risk...
I even thought it was macho
to shrug off those scare stories
we all hear about
Drugs may control the virus,
but it’s down to me we’ll carry it
to our (early?) graves
Copyright R. N. Taber, 2011
[Note: This poem first appeared in print in Scars Poetry Date Book, Scars Publications (US) 2012 and in my collection, Tracking the Torchbearer by R N Taber, Assembly Books later the same year.]
[Update, Sept 19, 2019: Today, the British Library confirmed that the link blow to the 4th plinth reading in 1999 is no longer available as the video is incompatible with an updated IT system. However, I am assured that the video still exists, and B L hope to make it available to the public again one day. Fingers crossed, and watch this space.] RNT
http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100223121732/oneandother.co.uk/participants/Roger_T [I am always being asked for this link to my poery reading on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square, my contribution to sculptor Antony Gormley's One and Other 'live' sculpture during the summer of 1999. For now, at least, this link needs the latest Adobe Flash Player and works best in Firefox; the archives website cannot run Flash but changes scheduled for later this year may well mean the link will open without it. Ignore any error message and give it a minute or so to start up. The video lasts an hour. ] RT 3/18
This post is duplicated on both blogs today for obvious reasons.
Now, most feedback from readers is very positive, but every now and then someone complains. A reader has been in touch to say ‘Posting gay poetry on the Internet, to which young people have ready access, is not only inappropriate but also a corrupting influence.’ While I disagree (of course) he or she is welcome to their point of view.
Does the average heterosexual really think there are no young gay people out there, I wonder? I was young once, even if it is more long ago than I care to remember.
What do you think? You might even want to comment on the British Library site where both blogs are listed as part of a project to archive on-line material alongside the printed word? Is it worth archiving a poetry blog, especially one that encourages gay people world-wide to feel good about their sexuality and promotes Gay Awareness?
Go to: http://www.webarchive.org.uk/ukwa/advancedsearch
and carry out a URL (or title) search for:
http://aspectsofagaymanslifeinverse.blogspot.com/ (G-A-Y in the Subject Field)]#
http://rogertab.blogspot.com// (A Poet’s Blog)
Meanwhile...
Hopefully, readers who complain that I rely too heavily on rhyme and should write more blank verse will appreciate the form of today’s poem as well as its content.
If any of you use a datebook, you might also care to click on the link below; it will take you to Scars Publications (USA) who have published a number of my blank verse poems over a period of some 10 years. They tend to only publish blank verse so keep me on my toes and lure me away from rhyme now and then.
http://scars.tv/
Click on their Scars Publications 2012 Poetry Datebook and you will see what it's all about. They have accepted the poem below for inclusion; it will appear on the entry for World AIDS Day, Dec 1st 2012. (I deliberately did not make it a gay-interest poem. It is high time people stopped thinking of HIV-AIDS as The Gay Plague!!)
OVERHEARD ON A TRAIN:
WOMAN: It takes a real man to be sexually responsible.
MAN: It takes a real woman to insist a man is sexually responsible.
ME (thinks): It takes real maturity to say ‘no’ to unprotected sex.
Oh, yes, and it takes a clear-headed person to take sexual responsibility on board so let’s not get so drunk or high we lose the plot, okay?
Now, regular readers will know I am passionate about DAMSET, an HIV-AIDS Educational Trust based in the seaside town of Bournemouth that has set a wonderful example to the rest of the world by creating a memorial mural to all those - gay and straight - who have died of AIDS across Dorset. I was unable to attend the inauguration last December, appropriately on World AIDS Day, but feel very privileged that a poem I wrote for the project has been included in the mural. [I included in my reading on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square in July 2009; see link at the top of this page.]
Visitors to Bournemouth for years to come will be able to see the mural for themselves near the pier entrance. It is a wonderful way to remember people and also promote Gay Awareness as well as sexual responsibility.
For more information about DAMSET see: http://damset.co.uk/
Straight or gay, many people (especially young people) seem to think HIV-AIDS is little more than a scare story and does not concern them...until it becomes the story of their life.
Have fun but...be careful out there, yeah? Play safe. Otherwise you not only risk catching the virus yourself but giving it to others. Either way, it’s plain irresponsible.
CARRIERS
I should have had the test,
never thought it could happen
to couples like us
Now we have to tell people
(who’ll think the worst of me)
we are HIV positive
I’m just an Ordinary Joe,
struggling to pay off a mortgage
and still have a life;
I love to party (who doesn’t?)
and, yes, there were a few times
I dropped my guard,
forgot low risk doesn’t mean
there’s no risk...
I even thought it was macho
to shrug off those scare stories
we all hear about
Drugs may control the virus,
but it’s down to me we’ll carry it
to our (early?) graves
Copyright R. N. Taber, 2011
[Note: This poem first appeared in print in Scars Poetry Date Book, Scars Publications (US) 2012 and in my collection, Tracking the Torchbearer by R N Taber, Assembly Books later the same year.]
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