Open to Question

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

Hi everyone. Hope you like today’s poem. Some blog readers contact me via the comments button, but I do not post comments, good or bad. Please include an email address if you want me to reply. (I love to hear from blog readers worldwide.)

Body language says it all...but is easily misunderstood, too, so you have to get it right .

Oh, but who has not been there, sitting at a bar, cafe, wherever... alone, glancing around...wishing and hoping ..? 

OPEN TO QUESTION

He looked at me, smiled,

made my day,

and I could only wonder.

is he gay...?

He was with a friend

chatting away,

and I could only wonder,

is he gay...?

I smiled back uncertainly,

wistfully, shy;

was it just a friendly smile

or…why?

He did not look at me again,

my fantasy guy,

leaving me to but wonder,

can a smile lie?

They left, these two friends

I ordered  a beer,

thinking how life is a bitch,

my way unclear…

Man with the Smile returned

on his own,

grabbed a bar stool by mine,

tossed me a grin

The way his eyes engaged me,

made my day,

and I did not have to wonder,

is he gay...?

Copyright R. N. Taber 2015

A Feeling for Fantasy OR Nature Onside

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

A whimsical poem with a serious message today, requested by Imogen for her partner Jayne. It appears that, like me, Jayne has always loved fantasy fiction.

From the age of about ten, I, too loved to explore the world of myth and legend and would head directly for that section in my local public library even before trying out the delights of children's fiction.

My penchant for fantasy has found its way into many of my poems, poorly disguised as metaphor. In some ways, it as much escapism from a harsh reality now as it was for me all those years ago.

Some readers might enjoy my 'Mamelon' fantasy novels serialised on my fiction blog; the blog includes gay and general fiction of which Mamelon, though, is the latter:

https://rogertaberfiction.blogspot.com/2016/05/news-updates-fiction.html

A FEELING FOR FANTASY or NATURE ONSIDE

Strolling by fields of barley, wheat and rye,
my love and I sought lasting rest and peace;
twin spirits hungry for sanctuary,
weary of a world always judging us

We reached woodlands alive with leafy song,
a sonata for lovers everywhere,
paused to ask a tree nymph for its blessing,
keen to turn our backs on urban despair

The nymph warned it was born of the country,
bound by the countryside’s own moral code,
had only heard tales of urbanity,
a Grim Reaper harvesting swathes of road

Such peace here! “For us, too, a gay couple?”
“Ah,” says nymph, “that depends on people.”

[From: A Feeling For The Quickness Of Time by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2005]

Imagination, the Agony and the Ecstasy

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

A reader has asked me to repeat the link to my poetry reading (for an hour) on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square last year as part of Antony Gormley's One and Other: 'live sculpture' project: 

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100223121732/oneandother.co.uk/participants/Roger_T   [NB: Sept 19, 2019 - The British Library confirmed today that the 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.] R.N.T

Meanwhile...

Here’s another poem from the Taber archives, discovered in an old exercise book last year and revised but not substantially. The original was dated February 1964 at a time when homosexual relationships were illegal here in the UK. I would have been 18 years-old. Regular readers will know what a rough time I had during those dark, closet years. I guess it is why I empathise fully with people - especially young people - who feel unable to be openly gay for whatever reason.

I still feel guilty about being in and out of the closet for years before I finally came out to stay. It was hard to shrug off all that ugly baggage I was made to carry during my younger years. Sadly, even tragically, it is no easier now for gay men and women world-wide who grow up in a gay-unfriendly environment.

During those awful closet years, I never spoke out against homosexuality as some do (to cover their tracks perhaps?) but was acutely aware that it wasn't enough....

IMAGINATION, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

I see him almost every day
yet dare not let him see how
I’m lusting after him

Sometimes he’ll chat to me,
his every casual word churning
my stomach

His voice tickles my tongue
then trickles down my throat
like juice from a pear

Sometimes we shake hands
and it’s enough to put my mind
in a frantic spin

Oh, to strip off his all clothes
and feel hungry fingers tugging
excitedly at mine!

Gladly, I’d let the glory of sex
with this god from over the way
be the death of me

Instead, I can only fantasize
about my lips descending on his,
pinioning him

He’ll move on, perhaps turn
at his front door, wave, smiling,
sticking the knife in

Copyright R. N. Taber 1964; 2010