http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
[Update Jan 5, 2017 Since writing this poem, the title has taken on a new (additional) meaning for me as I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in February 2011. retired from giving poetry readings around the UK a few months before a bad fall 20 2014 which resulted in my having to learn to walk again.Nature has been on my side and now I am able to get out and about quite well with my walking stick. Living with prostate cancer poses a not dissimilar challenge.Friends are very supportive but some men (gay and straight alike) with whom I have chatted at the Cancer Centre have no one and rely on Prostate Cancer UK for help and support. So I have decide to give a poetry reading (a mixture of gay-interest and general poems on various subjects) on National Poetry Day (March 21, 2017) to try and raise funds for Prostate Cancer UK. If enjoy my blog/s and happen to be in London or nearby, you are more than welcome to come along' should you also feel able to donate as much or as little as you can afford in a very worthy cause via my JustGiving page, so much the better. Cheers!]
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Roger-Taber
Meanwhile...
Today’s poem has not appeared on the blog since 2009 and I am posting it again today especially for those young people who write in from time to time expressing doubts and dismay about ‘coming out’ to family and friends. It is never easy, and must be a person's own decision no one else's. Yes, I encourage people to come out, but I respect the fact that some people can't or won't for whatever reason. Sadly, there are still far too many LGBT-unfriendly environments where socio-cultural-religious conventions remain in force.
Many if not most gay people who dread coming out are pleasantly surprised to discover that friends and family have already guessed they are gay and certainly think no less of them for it. Sadly, there are always exceptions, but most towns and cities have LGBT support groups now that can be located o the Internet and are well worth a visit.
It strikes me that we live in too much of a one-upmanship society. It is bad enough in adult life but young people especially should not feel they are in competition with anyone, but feel free to go their own way, cherish and follow their own aspirations, including sexuality, no matter that some people might try to put them down for it.
There are far too many small-minded people about who seem to think someone is a nobody unless he or she is somebody and you can only be somebody by wearing the right clothes, being seen at the right places and being part of what is invariably a rubbish ‘in-crowd’ or (worse still) a street gang.
As my dear late mother once said, the best thing you can do for yourself is BE yourself.
This poem is a villanelle.
GOING WITH NATURE
No point in competing with peers
(it doesn’t matter what others say)
where a sandman has other ideas
They will but shed crocodile tears
each time we seem to lose our way;
no point in competing with peers
We know to face up to our fears
and learn to mould them to our clay
where a sandman has other ideas
By whatever hopes a parent steers,
each child needs to find its own way;
no point in competing with peers
An early mist, so quickly it clears,
fair Apollo left free to carry the day
where a sandman has other ideas
Above all things, nature endures,
keeping faith with us, straight or gay;
no point in competing with peers
where a sandman has other ideas
Copyright R. N. Taber 2009
[Update Jan 5, 2017 Since writing this poem, the title has taken on a new (additional) meaning for me as I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in February 2011. retired from giving poetry readings around the UK a few months before a bad fall 20 2014 which resulted in my having to learn to walk again.Nature has been on my side and now I am able to get out and about quite well with my walking stick. Living with prostate cancer poses a not dissimilar challenge.Friends are very supportive but some men (gay and straight alike) with whom I have chatted at the Cancer Centre have no one and rely on Prostate Cancer UK for help and support. So I have decide to give a poetry reading (a mixture of gay-interest and general poems on various subjects) on National Poetry Day (March 21, 2017) to try and raise funds for Prostate Cancer UK. If enjoy my blog/s and happen to be in London or nearby, you are more than welcome to come along' should you also feel able to donate as much or as little as you can afford in a very worthy cause via my JustGiving page, so much the better. Cheers!]
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Roger-Taber
Meanwhile...
Today’s poem has not appeared on the blog since 2009 and I am posting it again today especially for those young people who write in from time to time expressing doubts and dismay about ‘coming out’ to family and friends. It is never easy, and must be a person's own decision no one else's. Yes, I encourage people to come out, but I respect the fact that some people can't or won't for whatever reason. Sadly, there are still far too many LGBT-unfriendly environments where socio-cultural-religious conventions remain in force.
Many if not most gay people who dread coming out are pleasantly surprised to discover that friends and family have already guessed they are gay and certainly think no less of them for it. Sadly, there are always exceptions, but most towns and cities have LGBT support groups now that can be located o the Internet and are well worth a visit.
It strikes me that we live in too much of a one-upmanship society. It is bad enough in adult life but young people especially should not feel they are in competition with anyone, but feel free to go their own way, cherish and follow their own aspirations, including sexuality, no matter that some people might try to put them down for it.
There are far too many small-minded people about who seem to think someone is a nobody unless he or she is somebody and you can only be somebody by wearing the right clothes, being seen at the right places and being part of what is invariably a rubbish ‘in-crowd’ or (worse still) a street gang.
As my dear late mother once said, the best thing you can do for yourself is BE yourself.
This poem is a villanelle.
GOING WITH NATURE
No point in competing with peers
(it doesn’t matter what others say)
where a sandman has other ideas
They will but shed crocodile tears
each time we seem to lose our way;
no point in competing with peers
We know to face up to our fears
and learn to mould them to our clay
where a sandman has other ideas
By whatever hopes a parent steers,
each child needs to find its own way;
no point in competing with peers
An early mist, so quickly it clears,
fair Apollo left free to carry the day
where a sandman has other ideas
Above all things, nature endures,
keeping faith with us, straight or gay;
no point in competing with peers
where a sandman has other ideas
Copyright R. N. Taber 2009
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