L-I-F-E, Homing in on Past-Present-Future OR Ghosts

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

A reader comments that he has been very lonely during this second UK lockdown, and has coped far worse than during the first. I suspect this is true of many people, especially those of us who live alone and. or are unable to get out and about too well due to mobility problems. All we can do is keep looking on the brighter side of life, take each day as comes and trust that the vaccination program will see and end to all safety restrictions sooner rather than later. Even so, it is hard to nurture a positive mindset here in the UK when a third wave of Covid-19 is sweeping the continent. 

Many people are experiencing a range of emotions with which they are unfamiliar, not the least of which is fear. Several readers have emailed to say they feel scared as soon as they wake up each morning, dread having to face another day of having t cope with the Covid stress that is taking its toll on everyone. “The worst thing is,” a reader confides, “…is that I cannot tell anyone I am so scared as I’d feel such a fool.” Believe me, most people would be only too happy to have an excuse to share e the very same feelings. 

There is an old saying that a trouble shared is a trouble halved; fear is no exception. 

Having grown up the very homophobic 1950’s, I was afraid to tell people – especially family – that I am gay. Had I been able to share my fears with someone would have made a huge difference. As it was, my family were content to discuss the likelihood that I was gay, but no one thought to bring the subject into the open and talk to me about it until untold damage had already been done. When I finally came out to the world as a gay man, it was an indescribable relief. 

As I have said before, on both poetry blogs, I feel encouraged on behalf of young LGBT people these days that fewer are likely to be treated like freaks of nature - or 'sinners' as various world religions would have it - simply for the nature of their sexuality. 

Sadly, human nature being the complex organism it is, certain societies and communities worldwide still have a lot to learn - and become reconciled to - as far as same sex lovers and human rights are concerned. Hopefully, the pandemic will at least have brought home to many if not most that, for all our differences, we are (all) but human.

L-I-F-E, HOMING IN ON PAST-PRESENT-FUTURE or GHOSTS

Unwelcome visitor,
anytime, anywhere, day or night,
I may well depart
without even giving my name 
if only to be sure
you will know it when I call again,
mind-body-spirit
(always one for a game of chance)
offering suggestions at every blind turn,
inciting desperation 

Deny me if you will,
I’ll not be deterred from haunting
and hurting you,
making you regret whatever it is
you would hide,
though there’s no sure hiding place,
the only solution,
head-on confrontation (always your call)
winner risking all… 

I haunt all creatures
great and small, but it is humankind
I most love to taunt
with unspoken threats the heart
hears only too well,
but would prefer to ignore, finds hard
to share or explain
lest it be caught out, made to give a name
to some guilt or shame 

I am Fear, last heard of breaking down doors
kept shut for years

Copyright R. N. Taber 2021

[Note: This post-poem also appears on my general poetry blog today.] RT

L-I-F-E, the many Faces of Love

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

Elton John has accused the Vatican of “hypocrisy” over its decision to prohibit the blessing of same-sex unions, pointing out that the Holy See reportedly indirectly invested in his Rocketman biopic. Good for Elton, I say.

Now, poets are inclined to be very spiritual people and I reject the view that I should be denied a sense of spirituality because I do not subscribe to any of the world religions; religion does not have a monopoly on spirituality.

The main reason I have been drawn to Pantheism for many years is that it has a spirituality to which I can relate, can feel, something religions of the world would deny me because I am gay. Gay men and women need a physical as well as a spiritual relationship with their partners; it is an expression of love, after all, above and beyond anything words can say. 

The idea put forward by certain religious leaders that being a gay person is acceptable so long as he or she remains celibate is absurd, and just goes to how they are so bound by dogma that they have little real understanding of the natural human spirit.

Being gay is a human condition, not a choice. Homosexuality can be dictated by no one, nor does it deserve to be abused by way of interpretation from any source that would have it make a 'sinner' of anyone or, worse, make them appear less human. 

Religions of the world are, of course, entitled to their convictions regarding same sex relationships, but those who don't share those same convictions deserve better than to be verbally and openly abused for it. 

As for a sense of spirituality, whether it relates to an ethereal God-like Being whom Holy Books would have us believe in, and/ or addresses the spirituality with which the natural world embraces us... who's to say engaging with either or both is right or wrong?

L-I-F-E, THE MANY FACES OF LOVE 

He said he liked my tie
(as good a chat-up line as any
then offered to buy me
a beer, taking my broad grin
as the go-ahead
for a conversation’s many a twist
and turn of face
before we finally got around to going
back to his place 

I hadn’t expected to fall
in love with the guy, but love
has an agenda
all its own, and I was hooked
from the start,
the heart, too, inclined to move
in mysterious ways
as left mine feeling, oh,  so happy-sad
and wishing on stars 

It was on the anniversary
of the first hundred days since we met
that we saw a pastor,
asked him to marry us, let us make
the kind of home
to which all couples in love aspire,
but he sighed, insisting
we confess to be living in sin, ‘God is Love’
notwithstanding

To be or not to be,? A fair enough question,
but can religion wholly answer for Heaven?

Copyright R. N. Taber, 2021

[Note: This post-poem also appears on my general poetry blog today.] RT

The Story of a Life

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

Although I am 75 years-old, I remain at heart much the same person I was as a child. Hopefully, I have learned enough from various life-experiences not to dwell on the many mistakes I have made, but take sufficient strength from all they have taught me to keep looking on the bright(er) side of being human. 

The pandemic has given us all much food for thought, not least for a growing sense of isolation. 

Relatively few people have such confidence in themselves that they rarely need to share their thoughts and ideas, especially with those friends and/ or family members whose opinions matter most to us, if only because we can be sure they will be frank rather than just kind. 

The need for social distancing has been kind to no one, often leaving only the inner self to fall back on, not the most objective confidante to share our concerns. Even so, the self is all of who and what we are, and we need to trust it to give mind-body-spirit all the encouragement it may need. 

As a child, I would take my cue from the spirit of Happy-Ever-After tales, however questionably they might have ended. As an adult, I guess I still do. For better or for worse, it has seen me through good times and bad, and I can but hope it will continue to do so…

THE STORY OF A LIFE 

Listen, I am near
poised to bid a heartfelt farewell
to winter’s darker ways,
mind-body-spirit eager to re-engage
with joie de vivre,
for growing younger, its sunlit days,
a timely reminder,
though whether humanity any the wiser
remains a brain-teaser 

Listen, I am here,
seek me out and you may well hear
whatever the head
seeks to know, while loath or unable
to break down
a heart’s closed door lest it reveal
it was but a dream,
the love for whom you dared hope to be
another’s one-and-only 

Listen, and be sure
to hear of what songbirds are singing,
that joie de vivre
we would all engage in for homing in on
people and places
we can always rely on to fill the heart
with happy thoughts,
inspiring all mind-body-spirit to go for gold
put aside growing old 

I am much the same favourite bedtime story
that’s the stuff of all live-and-let live history

 Copyright R. N. Taber, 2021

[ Note: This post-poem also appears on my general poetry blog today for those readers whom feedback suggests only access this  blog. After all, a poem is a poem is a poems, regardless of either teader or poet's sexuality.]

 

 

 

One for the Family Album

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

Regular readers will know that I am pantheist in so far as I see God as nature rather than its creator.

Now, being gay is not a choice, but who we are; the only choice lies in whether or not we choose to be ourselves; rarely an easy choice given the persistent stereotyping and other fake news that has plagued the whole LGBT community for centuries.

Albert Einstein expressed strong views about prejudice, among them:

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions. 

 - Albert Einstein, Essay to Leo Baeck, 1953

ONE FOR THE FAMILY ALBUM

I am as I am,
although world religions 
see fit to take issue,
yet mind-body-spirit trusts itself,
won’t concede defeat,
and some would say a hypocrite,
mind-body-spirit 
quite simply in denial for refusing
to admit it's misguided

I am as I am,
a sense of spirituality as much part
of me as any other
for its embracing that whole of me, 
can see no wrong
in asking of others no more or less
than asked of me
in simply being human, warts ‘n’ all
not driven into freefall 

What’s wrong
in nursing opinions with which some
may well not agree,
given freedom-of-thought at the heart
of human nature
for its needing to incite critical debate
(all-comers welcome)
to have an agreeing-to-differ mentality
driving human society? 

I am gay, as blessed a Child of  Nature
as any other

Copyright R. N. Taber, 2021

 [Note: Apologies for the error in the first stanza of the original poem, now corrected on both poetry blogs.] RT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello, LGBT readers

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

A reader has emailed to say that friends cannot access this blog on other servers. I can only suggest they try typing in the full web address as this seems to work for some people:

https://aspectsofagaymanslifeinverse.blogspot.com

Another reader asks why I post so few poems on this blog these days.  Hopefully, some readers continue to read both blogs, though, as a poem attempts to reach out to everyone, regardless of age, gender, sexuality or ethnicity.

Many poems on my general blog, although not LGBT-specific, adopt themes that many readers around the world will relate to, so long (of course) as they enjoy poetry in the first place; even then, it is unlikely that everyone will like or relate to every poem. 

As a gay man who enjoys reading and writing poetry, I started the blog about 10 years ago because I was only able to access relatively few poems relating to my sexuality. I suppose you could say that I began to run out of bardic steam. Anyone can access the blog archives, though, visible on the righthand side of any blog page; the archives contain many of my LGBT-specific poems.

https://aspectsofagaymanslifeinverse.blogspot.com/

or by switching to it from a general poetry blog page (top left)

I will be posting fewer poems on both blogs in the days and weeks to come as I am 75 now and have various medical conditions that need attending to on a daily basis so need to publish at least two more (limited) collections in book form as well as see making them available online. All my previous collections have a gay section, and LGBT poems also appear in other sections; they have been generally well-received and many UK public libraries stock them, but publishers appear not to like the idea of gay-interest and general poems appearing under the same cover if the lack of replies to any approaches/ enquiries I have made is anything to go by,

As the older generations and their prejudices towards same sex relationship that so many (by no means all) continue to propagate start to put sense and sensibility before ignorance, we can but hope that younger generations will take a more positive and balanced view, as many already do. 

Sadly, I suspect stereotyping and prejudice in all its ugly shapes and forms will persist among societies worldwide for some time yet. Whatever happened, I wonder, to universally treating others as we would expect to be treated ourselves and the kind of love for our neighbours that religions preach...? Mind you, human nature is such that life is no fairy tale, and just as we all have our own likes and dislikes; the same applies to people. There will always be those who don't like each other, and that' only natural, so long as the root cause for any dislike does not relate, for example, to their sexuality or the colour of their skin.

“Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.”- Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

 “I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.” - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, or On Education

Take care, everyone and keep well. I will be back sooner rather than later. In the meantime, do enjoy the archives, and many thanks for your company, always much appreciated.

Hugs,

Roger