Beauty and Strength, Defining (Gay) Pride OR Diversity, Nature Documentary

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

Regular readers will know that I do not subscribe to any religion. Even so, I hate to see gay men and women, boys and girls made to feel their sexuality and religion are mutually exclusive.

Socio-cultural-religious dogma has much to answer for and still has a long way to go before it can even begin to redress the wrongs and pain it has inflicted - and continues to inflict - on LGBT people worldwide.

Religions would have us believe in a God of peace and love. So why should sexuality matter to any God? And if it doesn’t matter to God, why should it matter to anyone professing to be a God-fearing person? Oh, and if sexuality does matter to a God who created all living things, how come the natural world is inclusively gay…?

I am reminded of a favourite quote: "It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength." - Maya Angelou

Incidentally, several readers have asked me to repeat the link to my favourite You Tube film about homosexuality in the natural world:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYdcvRe7ox8

This poem is a villanelle.

BEAUTY AND STRENGTH, DEFINING (GAY) PRIDE or DIVERSITY, NATURE DOCUMENTARY

Subject of a cloud movie one day;
the inner eye researching
all human history, inclusively gay

Apes in captivity, humans at play,
world shaping up, reshaping…
Subject of a cloud movie one day

True audience participation by way
of focusing on an all-embracing
all human history, inclusively gay

Signs of a storm well on the way,
as if the heavens protesting…
Subject of a cloud movie one day

A lark rising, its bitter-sweet lay
an ages-old theme, reworking
all human history, inclusively gay

Imprints on the heart sure to stay,
though a hard rain falling;
subject of a cloud movie one day,
all human history, inclusively gay

Copyright R. N. Taber 2008; 2018

Head in the Clouds, Reading Aloud

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

As a closet gay teenager 50+ years ago when gay relationships were a criminal offence here in the UK, it was ironically a Church of England minister (who insisted gay people would go to hell) that helped me through what were very traumatic years. Whenever you feel lost, he would say, look to God in Heaven for directions.

I did not go looking for God as I was already disillusioned on that count, but I did find myself gazing up at the sky one day and saw cloud shapes resembling two men holding hands and smiling down at me. After that, I coped with my secret life far better and with far fewer doubt as to whether or not I really had lost my way.

Yes, of course, it was all in my imagination. Even so, the heavens seemed to be telling me something, and who was I, a potential poet no less, to turn a blind eye? 

As for God, whatever we understand by that, I saw God and nature as inseparable one from the other even in those long-ago days. Consequently, as my consciousness of who and what I am developed and began to leave self-consciousness behind, a sense of spirituality I take from nature rather than religion was less and less threatened by my being gay. 

Acknowledging and accepting that we are gay is a cue for LIFE not an excuse to pursue a charade meant to persuade the heterosexual majority we are 'normal'. Besides, if normal is as normal does, it doesn't say much for many among the heterosexual majority anyway. On the other hand, if trying to be a good person (open mind, open heart) is as being a good person does, neither colour, creed, sex nor sexuality matter as much; on the contrary, all can play an important part in shaping us for the better...if we but let them, and refuse to be held back by conventions and dogma that need to get real.

Gay or straight, the sky's the limit as far as human potential is concerned. As for being gay, why do gay-unfriendly heterosexuals make such a big deal of it. We all share the same earth and sky, and LGBT is no more or less than another template for life.  (Certain socio-cultural-religious groups, please note!)

This poem is a villanelle.

HEAD IN THE CLOUDS, READING ALOUD

I take my cue for life from the sky,

where the sun winks back at me

among clouds spelling out, G-A-Y

Too often, the world makes me sigh

with frustration, rage, anxiety;

I take my cue for life from the sky

Now and then, people make me cry

until I find an answer to bigotry

among clouds spelling out, G-A-Y

Often advised to let sleeping dogs lie

than let them wake up to reality,

I take my cue for life from the sky

Once, told to hide my true self and lie,

I found an anthology of sexuality

among clouds spelling out, G-A-Y

Walking tall and holding the head high

can test even sense and sensibility;

I take my cue for life from the sky,

among clouds spelling out, G-A-Y

Copyright R. N. Taber 2016

It and I

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

I have some good friends, but live on my own and sometimes feel lonely. (Don't we all?) At such times, I will often I often go for a stroll on nearby Hampstead Heath, feel close to nature and not in the least bit lonely any more.

I love the Heath for its wide variety of trees, rolling green slopes and ponds whose wildlife residents are invariably as noisy as they are inspiring. Yet, there is another aspect of the natural world that befriended me many years ago. Indeed, readers often ask why it is I have a passion for clouds…

Here's wishing you all peace and love now and always,

IT AND I

I lay on the ground, gazing into a cloud

and we talked, it and I,

touching on things never spoken aloud

A face reassured me I should be proud

of not living a lie;

I lay on the ground, gazing into a cloud

I felt as if I’d spotted a friend in a crowd,

a gleam in each eye,

touching on things never spoken aloud

I struggled with words, once not allowed

(something to do with sexuality);

I lay on the ground, gazing into a cloud

Kindly, like a fairy tale giant, it towered

over me, brushing off fears I let fly,

touching on things never spoken aloud

Enlightened, with Apollo’s heat endowed,

we moved on, it and I;

I lay on the ground, gazing into a cloud,

touching on things never spoken aloud

Copyright R. N. Taber 2009

G-A-Y In The Subject Field

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

Yes, this is the poem from which the blog takes its title. It hasn’t been on the blog for a couple of years now and ‘Malika’ has asked me to post it today as she and her partner share my passion for clouds. I love to hear from lesbians as it reassures me that it is not only gay men that dip into the blog. I appreciate that some lesbians prefer the term to gay, but I know many more that are happy with gay.

Feedback suggests that some transgender readers enjoy the blog too, and that’s great news. After all, we are all people in the same swim, often against this or that society’s tides and that’s what counts. If we do not continue to press for equal right around the world, those countries where gay and transgender people are still victimised, ostracised, even executed with less dignity that you would put down a sick animal ... nothing will change. for my own part, I feel very heartened that so many straight young people from all walks of life take the trouble to email me and express encouraging sentiments about both this as well as my general blog. One reader even said he and his girlfriend both enjoyed reading the gay novels serialised in my fiction blog.

Change always takes time, changes in certain socio-cultural-religious attitudes invariably longer, often (far) longer than we would like. In our young people, though, I see more good than bad; in them especially lie the hopes and aspirations of  yours truly and other men and women, boys and girls around the world weary of being made to feel they need to apologise for their sexuality or, worse still, live out their lives in some awful closet.

G-A-Y IN THE SUBJECT FIELD

I read it in the clouds one day

when I was feeling lonely,

‘G-A-Y is good, means gay.’

I hadn’t found the way to say

how I felt about sexuality;

I read it in the clouds one day

Alone on life’s great highway,

till passing clouds told me,

‘G-A-Y is good, means gay.’

I couldn’t help feeling the way

I felt about you and me;

I read it in the clouds one day

So much I wanted to say

and did eventually…

‘G-A-Y is good, means gay.’

Life is rarely roses all the way,

though nature set us free;

I read it the clouds one day,

‘G-A-Y is good, means gay.’

[From: On The Battlefields Of Love by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010]