http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
Today’s poem has not appeared on the blog since 2010. (I try not
to post poems too close together, but repeat them as and when asked or for
readers who don’t have time to browse the archives or perhaps don’t have a
computer at home but rely on other venues for Internet access.)
Now, you have probably noticed how very intelligent people sometimes
say very stupid things. I read a
villanelle at a poetry reading once and a ‘self-confessed poetry lover’ in the
audience (why else would he be at a poetry reading?) said how much he enjoyed
hearing a poem on an ‘intelligent’ theme. He smiled patronisingly when I admitted
to a passion for villanelles and confessed to having written some 200+. Then he
said I must find writing in poetic forms ‘a nice change from writing gay stuff.’
‘I mean to say,’ he went on, ‘whoever
heard of anyone writing gay villanelles?’ When I told him I have written lots of villanelles on a gay theme, he just grinned inanely, laughed nervously, and promptly sought refuge in someone
else’s ear...
Yes,
this poem is a villanelle.
SURPRISE,
SURPRISE
It’s
a feel-good something every day
getting
the better of me;
surprise,
surprise, it’s called being gay
If
I have the look of a man on his way,
who
am I to disagree?
It’s
a feel-good something every day
Making
best of worst come what may
(two
cheers for democracy);
surprise,
surprise, it’s called being gay
Risen
above fear since fear doesn’t pay
if
you’re in a minority;
it’s
a feel-good something every day
Forgiving
folks who go out of their way
to
attack my integrity;
surprise,
surprise, it’s called being gay
In
nature, I rediscovered a spiritual way
denied
me by society ...
it’s
a feel-good something every day;
surprise,
surprise, it’s called being gay
Copyright R. N.
Taber 2010
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