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