Surprise, Surprise

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