http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
A new poem for the May 1st, but probably won’t be back until after my 2nd of three hormone implants (to shrink the prostate in preparation for a course of radiotherapy) in 10 days time. I feel fine, by the way.
Now, I have never liked being told what to do for no other reason than someone else thinks I should do things their way. I hate it when people tell me I must be sick or unnatural because I am gay, but can be ‘cured’ so long as I do as they say. The cheek of it! Only a fundamentalist egocentric of the religious or political kind would openly express such arrogance; the last people on Earth I would wish to emulate in any way shape or form. As for my sexuality, they may object to what I do in bed, but that is a private matter between me and whoever chooses to share it, no one else. We are always hearing about the individual’s right to privacy, not least because the world’s media choose to ignore it. Well, gay people have rights to privacy too.
Yes, I am sick, but because I have prostate cancer, not because I am gay. As for being unnatural, we are as we are born and there is nothing unnatural about that. It is high time those who continue to condemn gay people shut up, joined the 21st century, and got a life. Me, I have a life, and for all its ups and downs, it is one I hold dear. As I have said many times, we are not a race of clones (yet) and people should respect each other’s differences, not fight over them or claim superiority because they happen to think they are in the right so others who think differently must be in the wrong.
By all means, let’s debate, argue, and listen. Who knows? We might learn something. There is no place for didacticism in the modern world. (Certain world leaders, of a religious and/ or political nature, please take note!)
Some readers have expressed the view that I am too defensive about my sexuality. I don’t mean to be, not least because there is nothing to defend. I can see where a western gay person might be coming from, but they have to remember that the blog is read world-wide, including places where same sex relationships remain a criminal offence, punishable by a long spell in prison or even death. Besides, I want a gay men and women everywhere to feel GOOD about their sexual identity; it isn’t easy when you live in a gay-unfriendly environment. I grew up in one and it almost crushed me. Even in so-called ‘liberal’ western society, there are plenty who fail to grasp that our sexual identity, while important to us gay men and women, is all but irrelevant to society and our capacity for making a positive contribution to it.
Homophobia expresses itself in a variety of ways and I often meet and hear from gay people who feel all but crushed by it, as I was 50+ years ago.
Yes, yes, I know you’ve heard me say it all before. But as my dear late mother used to say, if something is worth saying it is worth repeating.
[Note: The quotation in stanza 7 below refers of course to William Blake’s poem The Sick Rose. I try to avoid obscure literary references in my poems, but this one is so well-known, I couldn’t resist. Even so, some readers will be unfamiliar with Blake who, among all the poets I have read, is probably the one who has influenced me the most in terms of philosophy and poetry.]
ENCOUNTER IN A ROSE GARDEN
‘Come, let me cure you,’
said a man in a long robe down
to his ankles
‘Come, be a better person,’
said the man with an air of quiet
desperation
'Let me show you how peace
and love can transcend any sexual
identity found wanting.’
‘Go away, and let me be,’
I told the man in a long robe down
to his ankles
‘Go, and be a better person
for discovering that humanity turns
on mutual respect.’
‘I am as nature birthed me,
and who are you (or I) to challenge
centuries of the same?’
‘O, rose, thou art sick!’
cited the cleric in a long robe down
to his ankles
He left, a vision of despair,
as I walked with my same sex lover
into a glorious summer
Copyright R N. Taber 2011
A new poem for the May 1st, but probably won’t be back until after my 2nd of three hormone implants (to shrink the prostate in preparation for a course of radiotherapy) in 10 days time. I feel fine, by the way.
Now, I have never liked being told what to do for no other reason than someone else thinks I should do things their way. I hate it when people tell me I must be sick or unnatural because I am gay, but can be ‘cured’ so long as I do as they say. The cheek of it! Only a fundamentalist egocentric of the religious or political kind would openly express such arrogance; the last people on Earth I would wish to emulate in any way shape or form. As for my sexuality, they may object to what I do in bed, but that is a private matter between me and whoever chooses to share it, no one else. We are always hearing about the individual’s right to privacy, not least because the world’s media choose to ignore it. Well, gay people have rights to privacy too.
Yes, I am sick, but because I have prostate cancer, not because I am gay. As for being unnatural, we are as we are born and there is nothing unnatural about that. It is high time those who continue to condemn gay people shut up, joined the 21st century, and got a life. Me, I have a life, and for all its ups and downs, it is one I hold dear. As I have said many times, we are not a race of clones (yet) and people should respect each other’s differences, not fight over them or claim superiority because they happen to think they are in the right so others who think differently must be in the wrong.
By all means, let’s debate, argue, and listen. Who knows? We might learn something. There is no place for didacticism in the modern world. (Certain world leaders, of a religious and/ or political nature, please take note!)
Some readers have expressed the view that I am too defensive about my sexuality. I don’t mean to be, not least because there is nothing to defend. I can see where a western gay person might be coming from, but they have to remember that the blog is read world-wide, including places where same sex relationships remain a criminal offence, punishable by a long spell in prison or even death. Besides, I want a gay men and women everywhere to feel GOOD about their sexual identity; it isn’t easy when you live in a gay-unfriendly environment. I grew up in one and it almost crushed me. Even in so-called ‘liberal’ western society, there are plenty who fail to grasp that our sexual identity, while important to us gay men and women, is all but irrelevant to society and our capacity for making a positive contribution to it.
Homophobia expresses itself in a variety of ways and I often meet and hear from gay people who feel all but crushed by it, as I was 50+ years ago.
Yes, yes, I know you’ve heard me say it all before. But as my dear late mother used to say, if something is worth saying it is worth repeating.
[Note: The quotation in stanza 7 below refers of course to William Blake’s poem The Sick Rose. I try to avoid obscure literary references in my poems, but this one is so well-known, I couldn’t resist. Even so, some readers will be unfamiliar with Blake who, among all the poets I have read, is probably the one who has influenced me the most in terms of philosophy and poetry.]
ENCOUNTER IN A ROSE GARDEN
‘Come, let me cure you,’
said a man in a long robe down
to his ankles
‘Come, be a better person,’
said the man with an air of quiet
desperation
'Let me show you how peace
and love can transcend any sexual
identity found wanting.’
‘Go away, and let me be,’
I told the man in a long robe down
to his ankles
‘Go, and be a better person
for discovering that humanity turns
on mutual respect.’
‘I am as nature birthed me,
and who are you (or I) to challenge
centuries of the same?’
‘O, rose, thou art sick!’
cited the cleric in a long robe down
to his ankles
He left, a vision of despair,
as I walked with my same sex lover
into a glorious summer
Copyright R N. Taber 2011
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