Divisions Of The Heart

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

If any of you have clicked on the link to my poetry reading in Trafalgar Square in 2009, you will have heard me read this poem:

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100223121732/oneandother.co.uk/participants/Roger_T  [For now, at least, this link needs the latest Adobe Flash Player  and works best in Firefox; the aerhives 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 2018

I felt I had to read it because it is so hard for gay men and women from various socio-cultural-religious backgrounds that remain intrinsically homophobic.

On the whole, feedback was very positive, but I did receive some hate mail too, which only goes to show that homophobia is alive and kicking even in the ‘liberal’ West.

I live in London and would say it’s a great city in which to be gay although it has to be said I have the distinct impression that multiculturalism is slowly but surely contradicting me; there has been a significant rise in attacks on gay men here in recent years. At the same time, I have no hesitation in condemning potentially racist and homophobic organisations like the British National Party that are even more to blame for fanning the flames of prejudice and hate crime across Britain and the rest of Europe.

When will they ever learn?  Oh, when will they ever learn...?

DIVISIONS OF THE HEART

I once met a man with ebony skin

who opened up his heart to let me in

and took me to his bed one night

where we made love until first light

My heart cries out to such as he

whose soulful words said differently;

even as we kissed with passion

he shed tears for his own crucifixion

He explained why we must part,

keep safe this one secret of the heart

he longed to shout out to a world

that would see him fall on its sword

Where the humanity in any culture

in denial of aspects of human nature

finding with God no less favour

for daring to take a same sex lover?

He left, the man with ebony skin

who opened up his heart to let me in;

in dreams, we’ll go there again,

set free, we victims of cruel division

[From: On the Battlefields of Love by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010]