Answering Back

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

Regular readers know full well that I do not subscribe to any religion. I consider myself a pantheist , preferring to take a (strong) sense of spirituality from nature in whose life forces I do not discount the work of a greater power. At the same time, I respect all religions, even though few (if any) respect neither my being (actively) gay nor my agnosticism. We are all free to make our own choices in life and should not be so quick to condemn any into which we cannot enter ourselves…for whatever reason. (It has been my experience that many people who insist they are not judgemental, prove by way of word and deed to be among the most judgemental. We are all different and it is our human right to be different.

I have met gay people from various socio-cultural-religious backgrounds who remain in the closet regarding their sexuality for fear of offending religious leaders who cannot reconcile sex and sexuality with religious. My understanding f God is that no God would want these people to suffer as they do, some terribly, from a sense of guilt no God worthy of the name would impose upon anyone.

More than once it has been put to me that I should put aside my gay ways and reconcile myself to a way of life likely to find favour with God as laid down in Holy Books; in my case, the Holy Bible. God, though, did not write any Holy Books, humankind did, and who’s to say how much was lost in translation and/or shaped in such a way as most likely to appeal to select writer/s and readers alike.

ANSWERING BACK

Being gay is no sin
a priest told a gathering
of gay men, women,
and gay-friendly souls;
the sin, it lies
in practising (gay) rites
of sex, even worse
for taking such pleasure
in them as cannot
(ever) be justified in the eyes
of any God
according to any religion
whose dogma
needs must be respected
by all followers,
no exceptions made for a select
minority of gays

Being gay is a life force
in me, spoke up someone
among the audience,
just as that blessed sense
of spirituality
I have (always) taken not only
from my religion
but also such life forces
all around us…
as in nature’s predilection
for renewal…
nor less so in a common humanity
whose needs,
(spiritual as well as temporal )
deserve common respect,
no exceptions made  for a select
minority of clerics

The priest begged
to differ, quoting passages
from Holy Books
that rang hollow for being taken out
of context and century,
even dogma, given its intention
to underwrite  
a sense of peace and love taken
from life forces
common to mind- body- spirit,
bent on reinforcing
a spiritual well-being independent
of any religious dogma,
audience reserving a human
right of reply,
likely to fall on many a deaf ear
in Church arenas

Copyright R. N. Taber 2017

At Freedom's Call

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

This post appears at the request of a young man living in Europe and afraid for many friends back home in his native Uganda who live in constant fear or persecution, prison and worse. I have expressed his fears better in other poems, but this is the one he chose because, as he puts it so succinctly,  'everyone has a right to love, no exceptions...'

Gay Rights have come a long way in the West since I was young, but we still have a long way to go before everyone achieves sufficient maturity and sense of fair play to recognise that we are just ordinary people with a positive a contribution to make to contemporary society as anyone else. [Religious fundamentalists and intrinsically homophobic clerics please take note...and grow up!] Uganda, of course,  is just one of many African countries where the repression of and attacks on gay people are a public disgrace to humanity. What makes it all so much worse is that this attitude is encouraged and promoted by radical evangelicals who claim to speak for God. Well, that just goes to show how dangerous ignorance can be since the New Testament and Holy writings associated with other religions assure us that God is Love and love does not discriminate in this way, certainly Jesus of Nazareth never would. I may be non-religious, but I feel very strongly that the way some 'middle management' religious leaders take it upon themselves to misinterpret central aspects of religion for their own bigoted ends.

We are all, each and every one of us, entitled to be free of the shackles of various socio-cultural-religious prejudices  worldwide.

Here's looking forward to the day when gay people around the world are free to express their sexuality without fear of persecution from the less enlightened among the heterosexual majority.

AT FREEDOM’S CALL

Once I played among green hills in summer,

listening to songbirds, watching them fly,

running free, hand in hand with my gay lover

our dream, like a kite, reaching for the sky

In purple hills, come autumn’s reds and gold,

I saw birds winging free of winter’s threat,

leaves painting pictures of we two grown old,

our dream, like a kite, playing hard to get

Once I walked in white hills at winter’s call,

heard a robin sing in a tree stripped bare,

nor did it flinch or fly off at the first snowfall,

our dream, like a kite, returning us there

If summer short, autumn brief, winter dead,

be love’s eternal spring taken as read

  

[From: Accomplices to Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007]

Something to be Said for Spreadsheets

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

A college lecturer has contacted me to say he enjoys some of the stories my poems tell but I should write more 'real' poetry.

So what, I ask myself is 'real' poetry? Whatever...I am as I am and I write as I write. Many people seem to enjoy my poems and that's good enough for me; at least they are real. As for my critics... [Do I care?]

Meanwhile...

If you can’t stop the office gossips, why not give them something to gossip about?

Oh, did I forget to mention I was born with a wooden spoon in one hand? Well, there’s nothing like stirring things up now and then to combat bad attitude, bring misleading stereotypes to task, make the case for we gay folks being no better or worse than anyone else, not to mention more sinned against than sinning by those who purport to subscribe to this or that religion whose leading clerics invariably betray its basic principles of peace and love by propagating stereotypes tailored to their own interpretation of its Holy Books.

SOMETHING TO BE SAID FOR SPREADSHEETS

Love’s light shone brightly in our eyes,
though we but chanced glances among high fliers
tongues wagging secrets and lies
gathered from grapevines, but never ours

It would be years before the room learned
that secret we kept safe, those lies we readily told,
how day and night we yearned
each other’s naked body to have and hold

I’d watch you over my desk sucking a biro
and in the mind’s eye we’d dare a passionate kiss,
not a single colleague in the know
(plainly married to a career, the pair of us)

One day someone made a cutting comment
about gay people expecting equal rights, equal pay;
the pink gin of prejudice left to ferment…
till you casually remarked that you’re gay

The silence deafening, spreadsheets on hold,
eyes looking everywhere, not a single key pressed,
a sense of shock-horror, blood running cold,
the office gossip machine making time to digest

You got up from your chair, approached me
and a shiver rippled down my spine, hands shaking
as I told my alter ego what will be, will be,
bracing myself for some history in the making

Our kiss but brief, you returned to your chair,
spreadsheets resumed, fingers flying across the keys,
so I did the same, though acutely aware
no one else was of a mind to do likewise

Extended applause, even a cheer here and there,
restoring our flagging faith in human nature

Copyright R. N. Taber 2007