A Conspiracy of Faith OR Gay in Iran

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

While our hearts go out to the victims and survivors of the recent earthquake in Iran, let’s not lose sight of the fact that it is a very repressive regime. Gay people have been executed in Iran for their sexuality alone. There is still a long way to go before we are accepted for ourselves worldwide and everyone recognizes we have as valuable a contribution to make to society as anyone among the heterosexual majority.

I wrote today’s poem after a conversation with two Iranian students in a gay bar here in London. 

Tehran: Photo from the Internet

This poem is a villanelle.

A CONSPIRACY OF FAITH or GAY IN IRAN

We suffer so, my love and me,
never free from persecution
for our ‘sin’ of homosexuality

We flung a bottle in a friendly sea
taking news of revolution...
We suffer so, my love and me!

Prey to a subterranean bigotry
killing us with religion
for our ‘sin’ of homosexuality

Tortured exiles in a home country
blind to natural evolution...
We suffer so, my love and me!

Openly engaging with society,
an impossible proposition
for our ‘sin’ of homosexuality

Condemned by an ancient judiciary
(a bond slave to tradition);
We suffer so, my love and me, 
for our ‘sin’ of homosexuality
  
London, August 2012

Copyright R N. Taber 2012

Gay Folks Do

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

Yes, I know I am on a summer break...BUT...I would like to encourage readers to click on to the link below as I think it is very important for everyone in societies worldwide that this absurd notion about gay people needing to be ‘cured’ is killed off once and for all.

http://www.allout.org/en/actions/endgaycures?akid=809.914447.qwwDrp&amp=&amp=&amp=&rd=1&t=3&utm_campaign=endgaycures&utm_content=english&utm_medium=email&utm_source=actionkit

Sexuality has to be in the genes. How else can there be millions of us worldwide from all kinds of socio-cultural-religious backgrounds?  The less enlightened among the heterosexual majority need to change the record and get real.

Meanwhile...

A reader, 'Anton'  has asked me to repeat the link (again) to my informal poetry reading on the 4th plinth in  Trafalgar Square in 2009 as part of Antony Gormley's  One and Other 'live sculpture' project. Be warned, it lasts an hour:

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100223121732/oneandother.co.uk/participants/Roger_T

Meanwhile...

Creative writing or any kind of creativity for that matter is a wonderful therapy. Don’t worry about being any good at it or not, just focus and go ahead; it is always a worthwhile exercise.

Now, I am not having as relaxing a break as I would like and am experiencing a lot of unexpected stress. As always, writing poems - especially love poems - helps relieve that stress and I would like to share this one with you today.

GAY FOLKS DO

There is a fire in me

that burns night and day,

but they say

it can’t possibly be love

because we’re gay

and everybody knows

gay folks

don’t do love, only camp,

butch and sex

There is a light in me

that shines night and day

but they say

it can’t have anything to do

with spirituality

since everybody knows

gay folks

only have time for sexual

identity

There is a voice in me

that sings night and day

about life, love,

and the sheer beauty

of being gay,

loving someone who loves

me too,

Earth Mother watching

over us

Copyright R. N. Taber 2012

Love's Take On Multiculturalism

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

I received the oddest email yesterday. A reader had some kind words for my poems but asks, ‘What is the point unless you can be counted among the great poets?’

This reader has answered his or her own question.  There is every point in writing poems if even just one person enjoys reading them.

So I am not a ‘great’ poet.  Do I care?  It is more than enough for me that both poetry blogs are read dail worldwide.

Too many cultures persist with a taboo on mixed-culture relationships. This is especially hard on those people, especially young people, living in a modern multicultural society.  Love has no time for such taboos and only asks that we respect its global identity.

It is no betrayal of culture, family or whatever to fall in love. Love brings shame on no one, and I include gay relationships. Those who see it as some kind of shameful betrayal are not only out of step with love, but out of step with their own culture for interpreting it by book rather than by heart; parents and other family members need to remind themselves that where any cultural responsibilities appear to override their love for children and siblings, the potential for shame lies not within that culture but within themselves. 

It is down and up to younger generations to break down old taboos once and for all, and as I look around me I can definitely see light at the end of that particular tunnel, but it is a long tunnel and long way to go yet before everyone gets to enjoy the sunshine; nor is there any need for compromise, just a common understanding of what drives the human spirit.

As I have said before and almost certainly will again, our differences do not make us different, only human, and we are all part of that global consciousness that comprises a common humanity; we need to respect each other's differences, not malign them.

LOVE’S TAKE ON MULTICULTURALISM 

As I put my lips to yours
they part to let my flame enter you,
its heat moulding us
into a live love-sculpture portraying
the true meaning of life

As the flame goes to work
on firing a peace offering to all those
who reject our love,
the raw scars of suffering peel away
like layers of an onion

As we dive and swim freely
where waters of the womb have risen
to offer us sanctuary
from wildfires threatening extinction,
we head for infinity

We reach a sandy shore,
our healing selves embraced by palms
whose leaves caress
where cruel hands would not long since 
have denied us a hearth

Oh, heaven, this splendid place;
if a dream, as real and far more likely 
to inspire angel choirs
than conflict among opposite numbers
in temporal divisions

Sadly, we must rise and leave
to make our way in this 'modern' world,
still a slave to its past
for all its fine rhetoric about fair play
in a free society

Yet, we have found a place
where no socio-cultural-religious spite
can keep us apart
though it snatch us up and spit us out
for breaking its rules

Find us among arts and streets,
recreating love’s custom-made models,
nor a finer take on life
than sex, sexuality, ethnicity or creed
reworking its humanity

Copyright R. N. Taber 2012