http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
A new poem today, inspired by a recent conversation with a complete stranger in his mid-50s with whom I got chatting in a local bar. His story is one that invoked core feelings of despair, loneliness, confusion and a determination to rise above these to which I suspect I am not the only gay person can easily relate.
When all seems lost, the way ahead long and bleak, we can but embark on a voyage of rediscovery..
MORE THAN BIT PARTS ON THE WORLD STAGE
I was but a dreamy youth
when they cast me out, family and friends,
from birth home and hearth
into a winter of the heart that would last
(oh, so many lonely years)
cast adrift on a raging river of tears,
dreams ebbing away,
rage screaming at me I’m not to blame
for the world, my enemy,
time refusing to let me think long
on a place to belong
Why should it matter I’m gay
when all that really matters in this life
is that we give it our best shot,
do right by that still small voice
playing director to we actors
in the greatest play on Earth till the curtain
falls to (hopefully) some applause
where we’ve acted out the art and soul
of human sexuality, bared it
to the critic’s eye, dared it deny us
in all fairness?
I grow old, yet adrift no more,
but safe and content enough on a shore
much closer to home
than ever thought possible years ago
during that winter of the heart
where it longed so to skip among lambs
in the first throes of spring,
swim a river into a long, hot summer,
leap with salmon into autumn,
let Memory’s glowing coals defy
wintry snowfalls
All I yearned for and thought
but a dream, you showed me, gave me,
loved me as only true lovers can,
and though some said our love was a sin
because we were two men,
we’ve skipped among lambs in spring,
swam rivers into summer,
leapt with salmon in autumn, fanned
Memory’s glowing coals
in the faces of those who wish us
wintry snowfalls
Copyright R. N. Taber 2012
A new poem today, inspired by a recent conversation with a complete stranger in his mid-50s with whom I got chatting in a local bar. His story is one that invoked core feelings of despair, loneliness, confusion and a determination to rise above these to which I suspect I am not the only gay person can easily relate.
When all seems lost, the way ahead long and bleak, we can but embark on a voyage of rediscovery..
MORE THAN BIT PARTS ON THE WORLD STAGE
I was but a dreamy youth
when they cast me out, family and friends,
from birth home and hearth
into a winter of the heart that would last
(oh, so many lonely years)
cast adrift on a raging river of tears,
dreams ebbing away,
rage screaming at me I’m not to blame
for the world, my enemy,
time refusing to let me think long
on a place to belong
Why should it matter I’m gay
when all that really matters in this life
is that we give it our best shot,
do right by that still small voice
playing director to we actors
in the greatest play on Earth till the curtain
falls to (hopefully) some applause
where we’ve acted out the art and soul
of human sexuality, bared it
to the critic’s eye, dared it deny us
in all fairness?
I grow old, yet adrift no more,
but safe and content enough on a shore
much closer to home
than ever thought possible years ago
during that winter of the heart
where it longed so to skip among lambs
in the first throes of spring,
swim a river into a long, hot summer,
leap with salmon into autumn,
let Memory’s glowing coals defy
wintry snowfalls
All I yearned for and thought
but a dream, you showed me, gave me,
loved me as only true lovers can,
and though some said our love was a sin
because we were two men,
we’ve skipped among lambs in spring,
swam rivers into summer,
leapt with salmon in autumn, fanned
Memory’s glowing coals
in the faces of those who wish us
wintry snowfalls
Copyright R. N. Taber 2012
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