Coming in from the Cold OR Gay in Shanghai

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

There is room for cautious optimism for LGBT rights in China.

Raymond Can Chi-Chuen is the first openly gay legislator in Hong Kong and Greater China although Hong Kong remains a largely conservative society.

(Photo taken from the Internet]

Runners of the Shanghai Pride Run in June 2016 wore rainbow shoelaces at the start of the race:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/17/its-still-just-about-ok-to-be-gay-in-china/

Meanwhile, Gay Pride perseveres, and let's we wish everyone involved LOTS of luck, love and peace.

https://www.shpride.com/2018/05/20/priderun/?lang=en

This poem is a villanelle  

COMING IN FROM THE COLD or GAY IN SHANGHAI 

In China, gay couples battle on

to regain equality as of old

across a present-day population 

Though an historical observation

bring us in from the cold,

in China, gay couples battle on 

What motive in non-recognition

of Human Rights, put on hold

across a present-day population?

Unable to marry, no legal adoption,

frozen out Society’s fold;

in China, gay couples battle on 

Far less financial-legal protection

(in a State’s deaf-blind fold)

across a present-day population 

Though we gay folks but human,

must we still suffer rejection?

in China, gay couples battle on

across a present-day population

Copyright R. N. Taber 2018

Better Late Than Never

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

Hate crime has always been with us, including physical as well as verbal abuse targeting gay people - especially gay men; whatever the motivation, it is never excusable. 

Everyone deserves to love and be loved - and I don't just mean romantic love either - whatever their colour, creed, sex or sexuality. As I get older, and living alone, I guess I should add age as well because it is love - past and present, in all its shapes and forms - that gets me up each morning and sees me carry on until it tucks me up in bed at night and sends a genial sandman to see me through to the next round...

Meanwhile...

Not romantically linked to anyone? Never mind, I can only repeat (remind you) that love comes in all shapes and forms. Most of us have family, friends, pets... If you have none of these, all the more reason to stop feeling sorry for yourself and let love touch your heart today and always. Better late than never...

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER 

A bitter winter sweeping

our city streets, country lanes

merging into nightmare;

me, having no idea where t
o go or what to do for thinking 
about you-me-us

Suddenly, I saw you there

smiling and grey,

like the winter sun, bursting

to re-appear, spread

some happiness for those

quick on the uptake,

seeking to refill our hearts 
with love than stand by

and watch them break 
for the sake of a bruised ego 
or haunting the brain

I didn’t know what to say,

lips frozen and blue...

Besides, how to tell how sorry

for our bitter quarrel 
over your being out to family 
and friends in the closet

neither of us willing to enter

into each other's points
of view, no surprise then 

that we exchanged a summer
of the heart for its winter

As I watched you cross 
towards me, I could 

but cave in, let love win,

proud to face the world
at your side, gay lovers taking
its prejudices in our stride

Copyright R N Taber 2005, 2019

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in A Feeling for the Quickness of Time by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2005.]

I, Diary

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

A new reader has been in touch asking about my poetry reading on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square that is mentioned in my Wikipedia entry. The entire web stream is now archived in the British Library. You can access my contribution via the link below; removing my name from the link will enable you to access all 2400 contributors:

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100223121732/oneandother.co.uk/participants/Roger_T   [NB: Sept 19, 2019 - The British Library confirmed today that he video is no longer available as it was incompatible with a new IT system, However, it still exists and BL hope to reinstate it and make it available to the public again at some future date.] RNT

Meanwhile...

I have never kept a conventional diary. Yet, my poems are a diary of sorts. They reflect thoughts inspired by all manner of people, places and events, all coming together at that crossroads we like to call a philosophy of life. Readers are invited to share without being asked or expected to take the same journey; hopefully, some of you will find something along the way to make your own lives that little bit easier and/or reassuring and/or comforting. If I fail miserably, at least I have left a record of my own journey. Certainly, I enjoy retracing my steps from time to time. (I can still remember the feeling of pride I felt on my first Gay Pride march in London. Pride, less in myself than in being a part of everything the march stood for and standing shoulder to shoulder with people feeling much the same way, each after his or her own fashion.)

Whenever I read a poem of mine, I usually think how I could have done better. Even so, I instantly relive the experience of writing it and likewise the inspiration behind it. It’s like flicking through pages of living memory; seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling early years, middle years and later years... getting a sense of endings that are not endings and feeling encouraged to believe that nature has more in store for us than just ‘The End.’

On a very personal note, my poems track my love for a man that lies at the root of just about everything I do, say, write and am. Our relationship may not have lasted long in terms of time but rose above that to conquer space. He was killed in a road accident years ago. For a while, my world stood still. But love was having none of that and told me to get on with my life. So I did. But he is as much a part of me now as he was then.

So we were two gay men in love...so what? The heterosexual majority never had a monopoly on love.

I, DIARY

Sun on my face, joy in my ears,
summer jostling for pride of place
among the seasons of my life

Feel autumn drawing near,
its leaves jostling for pride of place
among the pages of my life

Tears on my face like icicles,
winter jostling for pride of place
while Earth Mother takes five

Sun on my face, joy in my ears,
springtime jostling for pride of place
among the seasons of our life

Feel summer drawing near,
its leaves jostling for pride of place
as we turn the pages of our life

End pages, no blank space,
words of love signing off our history
while Earth Mother takes five

Copyright R. N. Taber 2011