The poem below can still be found in my general poetry blog archives for 2016; a reader in Poland has asked me to repeat it here as he thinks “my gay friends will like it, but they don’t visit your general blog …” Feedback suggests that many gay readers rarely if ever dip into my other poetry blog because, as this same reader says “…we don’t think it is relevant to us.” While I can understand that, it saddens me because poetry is an Open House; we may not always agree with or even like what we find there, but … blame the poet if you must, not the poem.
Many years ago, one of my teachers once described freedom to the class as the best of human spirit personified. I agree, though I guess it all depends on an incorrupt spirit and a sense of freedom for everyone, not a select few.
Whatever, we should never take personal freedom for granted, always resist any efforts by anyone to undermine it, moreover understand and accept that it can mean different things to different people while much the same force for good.
The Covid-19 threatens our personal freedoms like few human repressive forces, not least in the sense that it is an invisible enemy; we can but do much the same as when confronted by any enemy, resist it as best we can.
FREEDOM, BEACON OF HOPE IN A DARKENING WORLD]
In
some parts of the world,
all
paths to Freedom are (still) blocked
by
power-hungry rulers
living
in the lap of luxury where others
go
hungry, and can but dream
of
running fresh, clean, water from a tap
that’s
close to hand
In
some parts of the world,
all
paths to Freedom are (still) haunted
by
fighters who lost battles,
but
inspired others to continue the war
against
the sickest corruption
in
the highest places, best feet forward
to
global markets
In
some parts of the world,
all
paths to Freedom (still) ringing out
loud and
clear with howls
of
protest punctuated with the shrapnel,
gunfire,
and tear gas
that,
oh, so often accompanies integrity
even
in a 21st century
In
some parts of the world,
all
paths to Freedom are (still) littered
with
human bones,
occasionally
with name tags attached,
others
are identified only
by
such natural categories as ethnicity
and,
yes, sexuality
In
some part of the world,
all
paths to Freedom are (still) haunted
by
voices of the dead,
inspiring
men, women, and children
to
take greater pride
than
many so-called ‘betters’ in rallying
round
a flag with pride
In
some parts of the world,
heterosexuality
is promoted true enough
to
hot-blooded stereotype,
some
falling for the honeyed-up hype
of
tongues, sly and zealous,
while
others continue to call for a culture
of
Freedom for all of us
Copyright R. N. Taber 2014; 2020
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