From Roger’s friend, Graham
Growing up is challenging enough, even without the burden of
stigmatisation for loving someone of the same gender. There’s room for
improvement here in Britain, but generally LGBT+ citizens have equal rights
enshrined by law. In places of employment (excepting religious organisations)
discrimination on the grounds sexuality or gender identity is illegal. Since the Civil Partnership Act in 2004, same sex couples can join in a
legally recognised partnership. And after the UK Marriage Act in 2013,
LGBT+ couples are able to marry.
Marriage is perhaps the ultimate expression of love for
those fortunate enough to find a soulmate. It’s also a declaration of love to family,
friends and beyond. For couples with religious faith, it’s a sacred vow of love
with God as their witness.
Love is also a scintillating rainbow of sentiments. Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle wrote of a whole spectrum of emotions such as friendship love; philia, familial love; storge and passionate love; éros. Greek mythology also abounds with inspirational tales of profound and tragic love such as Orpheus and Eurydice. Love can be the light of your life - or the heart of your darkness…
Roger explores these epic themes expansively throughout his writing.
Sometimes in sonnet form - popularised in Elizabethan England by William Shakespeare and his contemporaries. (I
hope to explore this theme in a later posting). His printed works often devote
a section to the theme of love. They are, doubtless, poems interwoven with
personal experience.
Roger and I occasionally discussed past relationships and
compared notes on our respective missed opportunities, dashed hopes and even disasters.
Alas for Rog, he wasn’t lucky enough to find a long-term partner. Although I
believe his romantic soul never lost hope in meeting someone special.
In later life, I feel assured that Roger derived fulfilment through
the reciprocal love of close friendships. Can this be enough to sustain anyone in the absence of a partner, estrangement
from family or societal ostracisation? I imagine we’d all have a differing answer.
Throughout my own voyage of self-discovery, friendship has certainly proven to
be the most unconditional form of love. An enduring bond with Roger remains testament
to that.
* * *
‘Love
and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot
survive.’ Dalai Lama
‘Love is a canvas
furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.’ Voltaire
‘Keep love in your
heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.’ Oscar
Wilde
* * *
I’ll leave you with a trio of love poems – all from Accomplices to Illusion, Roger’s 2007 collection.
I should explain that I’m staying with family presently - with only one book
for source material. Wiltshire offers a welcome change of scenery. Tall oak
trees surround the house. Their upper branches sweep back and forth like an artist’s
frantic brushstrokes on a grey-marbled canvas. I look out on the small garden;
the colours of shrubs diluted under a dull watercolour sky. A crow flies past; its
hoarse cry breaking the mesmeric spell of birdsong. It fades to a black smudge on
a watery treeline.
Thanks for reading.
* * *
NIGHT WATCH
I have greeted chimes at midnight
lain half dead at the toll for one
as my lifeblood ebbs to a starlight
behind clouds, watch all but done
I have heard the clock ticking over
for the passing of happy hours…
nor shall, when it stops, run for cover
but embrace a time forever ours
I have heard sweet songs at sunrise,
watched the last stars slip away,
seen my life’s light bright in your eyes
promise a beautiful spring day
As nature pauses at stark winter’s cold
so lovers dream, beyond a growing old
Copyright R N. Taber 2007 [a sonnet].
* * *
BONDING WITH ETERNITY
It was love opened up my heart
to all life means to me…
nor shall death its bonding part
Sands of time, soulmates at the start,
a song of destiny;
it was love opened up my heart
May the world no finer truths impart
than its natural beauty;
nor shall death its bonding part
Like summer skies, stars, even clouds
charting a fragile humanity…
it was love opened up my heart
If a taste on the tongue sweet or tart,
our togetherness a delicacy;
nor shall death its bonding part
Be nature’s kin struck by poison dart
comprising all humanity…
it was love opened up my heart
nor shall death its bonding part
Copyright R N. Taber
2007 [a villanelle].
* * *
WEATHERING LOVE
When I dream of you it is a springtime
of high hopes I’ll not forget
When I think of you it is midsummer,
(that rainy day we first met)
When I speak of you, each word is like
an autumn leaf that’s falling
When I hear your name on another’s lips
it’s but a winter robin calling
At nature’s whims, a beauty, each its own
though we weather it alone…
Copyright R N. Taber
2007.
