Running with Dinosaurs

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

Once, I had a boyfriend, Simon, who had only just got around to telling his family he is gay, and took a little longer to break it to them that I was the new boyfriend. Simon’s family was not exactly overjoyed, either with his being gay or my part in it all.  

It was all a long time ago and Simon has been with his partner for many years now. I see them now and then; they are very close. Both families attended their Civil Partnership two years ago.

Now, this may not be a particularly good poem, but I never could resist a happy ending…

RUNNING WITH DINOSAURS 

I so hate it that my son is gay,

a dad confided in me,

nor can I find the words to say

I’m ashamed of his sexuality

It’s just not true I love him less,

the same dad reassured me,

but nature didn’t provide an anus

to be used other than…naturally

I’ll love him whatever his choice,

this dad confided in me,

but you can’t expect me to rejoice

that he has a boyfriend, surely?

True love is unconditional, I said,

as good parents, siblings,

partners and friends take as read

above all things…

It’s easy enough for you to say,

the dad confided in me,

you don’t have a son who’s gay,

letting down the whole family

Of course I’m proud of the lad,

his dad reassured me,

and since he’s not turned out bad,

I know it’s thankful I should be

If families can’t see eye to eye,

this dad, a cleric, told me,

let’s hope and pray we’ll get by,

let live, love, and…sexuality

I took comfort from our discourse

that my boyfriend will be okay;

some dads may run with dinosaurs,

but love would win the day

Copyright R. N. Taber c1983

Spontaneous Combustion

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

The Regent’s Park is one of London’s several major parks and not far from where I live. After strolling on Hampstead Heath, it is my second favourite pastime to walk along the Regent’s Canal towpath, pass by London Zoo’s aviary and over the bridge into the park. Besides acres of beautifully cared for grass and trees; there is also Queen Victoria’s rose garden (splendid in summertime) and a lake that nurtures all kinds of wildlife including beautiful black as well as white swans. 

Ah, but that it is not the only reason I love the park for chance can be a very fine thing indeed...

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION

I was out in the Regent’s Park, seeking

an ice cream man for a toffee fudge cone,

when I saw him in a window of a café,

his face a rosy hue, baseball cap all askew, 
knew I just had to try my luck with him,

maybe even find out (in time) why a light

in his eyes shone so dim, as if peering

through a sunny haze, seeking something

or someone, perhaps a reason for living?

Ice cream forgotten, I went and (discreetly)

sat down at his table, politely asking

if I may, an ice cold orange juice in solitary

splendour on a large oval tray, pleased

when he nodded, although he did not say

a word, merely continued to look out

of the window (at a world passing him by?)

And who was I, a stranger to enquire?

Oh, how the pucker of his brow, green eyes

and full lips, set my entire being on fire

in a way that had happened only once before,

thought never to strike twice in a lifetime;

yet, here was I, blushing like a teenager, just

for trying to make conversation with a man

who may even turn out to be straight, although

I doubted that (don’t ask me why or whose

need the greater) but we got chatting by and by

(no easy task, I have to say, but got easier)

Many a day since, especially after a falling out,

we’d sulk (separately) in the Regent’s Park,

but invariably make up again, come what may,

at that same café where our lives took off...

Copyright R. N. Taber 2004; 2011

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears under the title 'If The Cap Fits' in The Third Eye by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2004.]

G-A-Y, an Education

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

[Update, May 18th 2019]: There have been protests here in the UK from parents of various ethnic origins regarding the teaching of sex education in schools, especially concerning matters LGBT.
Can they not see that education is a basic learning tool for life, neither judgemental nor prejudiced but preparing children and young people for what they can expect to find beyond the school gates. Needs must they make up their own minds, all the more discerning (surely?) for being acquainted with plain facts rather than stereotypes dressed up as home truths open to abuse.]

I laughed once when a friend warned me that writing blogs quickly becomes an addiction! Ah, but she was so right. I really missed you all yesterday. Even so, I have a good reason for dropping by after receiving a call from ‘Alex’ who I have no way of contacting. Alex’s family will have nothing to do with him after he told them only recently that he is gay. Sadly, this is not as rare a case in this so-called ‘liberal’ northern hemisphere as I would like it to be. Alex didn’t say if he is staying with friends or on the streets. Please contact me again, Alex, and I will do my best to help you. [As a librarian all my working life, mostly in public libraries, it was my job to refer people to information/help sources.] If you have access to the Internet, there are LGBT support groups and networks around the country so see if there is one in your area.

Young gay people would not find themselves in this situation if more parents and schools encouraged intelligent debate about relationships, including gay relationships, instead of trying to pretend no son, daughter or student of theirs could possible be gay.

Young people regularly contact me to say they enjoy reading this gay-interest blog because it helps them feel better about themselves and less guilty about an awakening (or already wide awake) homosexuality. I despair I really do of those who, even in this 21st century of ours, continue to make gay boys and girls, men and women, feel ashamed of their sexuality. Worse, some people do it in the name of religion! All I can say if that any God would be ashamed of them. And, no, I am not only saying that because I am gay. As regular readers know only too well, I had given up on religion by the time I was 10 years-old. I wasn’t able to articulate ro myself about and acknowledge being gay until a few years later.

Well, let the bigots try and put us down. We know differently and, my goodness, we will show them we are every bit as decent a human being as any of them. Sadly, all the while so many misleading and offensive stereotypes of gay people continue to attach themselves to the less enlightened person's imagination, change for the better will be slow in many parts of the world, including pockets of the West where homophobia is alive and kicking. .

Never, but never, let anyone put you down for being gay. If someone has a problem with it, it’s their problem, not yours.

Okay, so I have said much a same thing in many of the near thousand gay-interest posts on the blog so far. But as my dear, late, mother used to say, if something is worth saying in the first place, it is always worth repeating.

G-A-Y, AN EDUCATION

I gave little thought
to sexuality until one day at school,
a classmate brushed against me
in the showers, causing a Tsunami
of mixed feelings to descend
on me, carry me away, refuting
every thought and lesson
I’d been taught in the best interests
of so-called ‘Education’

I had to turn away
so he would not see or (worse) let on
to others how my sexuality
had responded to the heat and silk
of his splendid body
as, naked, we washed ourselves clean
though some would say
I was the victim of a temptation
to let my self sin

I resisted temptation,
but no victim was I that day, only shown
an alternative way to live, love,
and fulfil what I had long suspected
was desire in me, but rejected
as an unknown quantity, preferring
to keep to safe, well-worn paths
in the preferred manner and direction
of so-called ‘Education’

I learned a much valued lesson that day,
acknowledged I am gay

Copyright R. N. Taber 2011

[Update: This poem appears in the gay-interest section of my latest collection, Tracking the Torchbearer by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2012.]