http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
Update (August 19th 2020):
Although some 1200+ poems have been published in various poetry publications
since 1993, these (still) include relatively few gay-interest poems. However,
this poem first appeared in an anthology, Crystal Chimes, Poetry
Now [Forward Press] 2002 and subsequently in my collection the same year.
Now, the best
advice I was ever given came from my English teacher at my old secondary school
who told me way back in the late 1950’s, ‘Taber, always remember you are as
entitled to a point of view as anyone else. Being your teacher does not
necessarily mean I am always right. Be prepared to fight your corner, but
concede other people the same courtesy and never, but never, close your mind to
alternatives.’44hile ...
In those days,
though, the stuffy (late 1950’s/ early 1960’s) I hadn’t found the moral courage
to stand up for myself and others. One boy
in my class (straight, as camp as Christmas) loved an audience; if he thought someone
was gay, he would make sure everyone was treated to the same hypothesis. Such
was the stigma afforded gay people in those days that few - including me, I am
ashamed to say -
dared
contradict him; on the contrary, he was seen as something of a champion of
integrity!
We've all met
them, classic dinosaurs obsessed with self-image and anything (or anyone) they
see as undermining it; never more so than in front of an audience. In many countries and communities, LGBT folks are tolerated if not (quite) accepted; in others, the same old stereotypical stigmas persist; that's not progress, that's sick.
ENGAGING WITH A
SCREAMING HETEROSEXUAL
“Being gay,
it's sick,”
he screamed. “No,
no, it's just
not on! Queers
deserve all they get,
and worse ..."
No matter how many
people
pretend not to
mind, most prefer
company of
their own kind;
it could ruin
your life forever;
far better to
play safe, take on a wife
and semi,
raise 2.5 kids,
bash away at
Promotion’s door,
keep the
neighbours happy,
discover (for
sure?) how it is
that acting
“normal”
better hypes
the higher dividend
than throwing
in one's lot with Gays
to the bitter
end
Equal Ops, a revolution
of sorts, but
same sexes at the altar,
even adopting
children? (Hardly a right
and proper option?)
Much-aired
opinions, certainly,
but you’re
you, and I’m me, meant to be
making our own
way,
telling our own
story as nature intended,
feeding on
dreams
and desires,
lighting fires in the heart
that bigots
would see put out,
but (modern)
history has other ideas,
less averse to
making a case
for LGBT
rights, up for telling the world
to get real, take pride in its diversity
of life forces, all credit to the human heart
as
a free country
Copyright
R. N. Taber 2002; 2020
[Note: An
earlier version of this poem appears in an anthology, Crystal
Chimes, Poetry Now [Forward Press] 2002 and subsequently in First
Person Plural by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2002.]
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