Covenant with Love

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

This poem appears in my general poetry archives for May 2012.

World AIDS day may be on Dec 1st, but the HIV-AIDS virus is among us all the time and those affected need our love and support every day.

Since being tested positive for prostate cancer in 2011, mind and spirit remain active, but my body doesn't want to know any more. No worries there, though, as I always enjoy falling back on feisty  memories and letting a poet's imagination, its wonders to perform...

COVENANT WITH LOVE 

Though saddened hearts would break

and HIV-AIDS a rising toll,

love, with loss, its peace shall make

See ripples spread for humanity's sake

come sun, moon, heart and soul

though saddened hearts would break

Where disease, fate, or age lives take,

anger, grief, like burning coal,

love, with loss, its peace shall make

See a light from dark, its prison break,

let better times roll…

though saddened hearts would break

Though we live for living’s own sake,

no matter affairs of the soul,

love, with loss, its peace shall make

Let the world’s worst its own forsake

and healing be our goal;

though saddened hearts would break,

love, with loss, its peace shall make

Copyright R . N. Taber 2007

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in Accomplices to Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007.]

Softly, Softly, Sexuality OR Gay in Moscow

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

[Update April 24 2017]: A conversation with a Russian born gay woman married to an Englishman recently confirmed how, tragically, many basic freedoms are being denied in Russia. New laws brought in by Vladimir Putin's government in 2013 have targeted basic human rights.

The result is a Russia where people are increasingly gagged from talking about their political beliefs, stopped from expressing their gender and sexual identity, and banned from involvement with any non-governmental rights groups.]

As regular readers may recall, I had a Russian boyfriend some years ago if only for a short while. He was studying in London and we kept in touch after he returned to Russia, but only briefly and I never heard from him again. Hopefully, he has been able to live the life and love of his first choice unlike so many gay people worldwide who - for one reason or another -  have felt obliged to settle for second best.  There re too many gay men and women all over the world having to live in fear simply for a sexuality that is as much a natural part of them as any limb.

February is LGBT History Month in the UK (October in the United States) and I have published several poems on the blog in an effort to show solidarity with gay readers worldwide living - as I did as a teenager and young man - in a predominantly gay-unfriendly society. Even here in the West, though, while society may, on the whole, be less anti-gay, homophobia remains very much alive and kicking if more closeted due to legislation in defence of political correctness.

LGBT History Month is also as good a way as any of getting across to the less enlightened heterosexual what it means to be gay, a good excuse - if excuse were needed - for schools and parents to discuss the subject sensitively and intelligently with older children and young people. Unfortunately, too few parents or schools (ever) do this, thereby - if only by default – allowing misleading and offensive stereotypes  still attached to gay boys and girls, men and women, to spread (worldwide) unchallenged and unchecked.

Bigotry and prejudice are, by their very nature, reluctant to get real. We can but remain hopeful that the 21st century,as it progresses, will eventually leave a more positive impression about gay people upon even those majorities across the world where gay and other significant minorities continue to suffer various socio-cultural-religious injustices. 

This poem is a villanelle.

SOFTLY, SOFTLY, SEXUALITY... or GAY IN MOSCOW

In the shadow of the Kremlin,
eager for public debate,
Russia’s gay men and women

Still (by many) considered a sin,
same sex lovers date
in the shadow of the Kremlin

Where politics rarely lets us in,
human rights running late,
Russia’s gay men and women

G-A-Y asking society to listen,
unafraid to talk straight
in the shadow of the Kremlin

Subjected to various injustices
approved by the state,
Russia’s gay men and women

Hypocrisy, demanding religion
take Putin’s part…
In the shadow of the Kremlin,
Russia’s gay men and women


Copyright R. N. Taber 2016

Pink Clouds, Sunset on a Gay Love Affair

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

[Update June 7 2018: The photo below was recently taken in Grays, Essex, by my close friend Graham Collett, a graphic designer by profession who also shoots the videos for my You Tube channel.( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSdhLgPQOsng2Xz8n5m0ViQ ) I thought those of you who have enjoyed his videos might also enjoy this lovely sunset over the Thames estuary.]

[Image taken from the Internet]

Meanwhile...

Sexuality has to be in the genes or how else can we explain gay people from all socio-cultural-religious persuasions worldwide? Given then that sexual identity is a natural consequence of birth, where else to look for inspiration than to the natural world?

Now, several readers have been in touch to say they share my passion for clouds so...

Every sunset, I journey among pink clouds into bitter-sweet realms of memory and wishful thinking.  

This poem is a villanelle.

PINK CLOUDS, SUNSET ON A GAY LOVE AFFAIR

Two men sharing love's sweet kiss,

nor less so two women…

pink clouds, they are made of this

Our love, it brings me to such bliss

as I’d never known;

two men sharing love's sweet kiss

Come a time as may have me miss

your heat, our passion…

pink clouds, they are made of this

We ask of society but to make peace

with us, leave us alone;

two men sharing love's sweet kiss

Tears for the worst in world societies

(bigotry, hate, persecution);

pink clouds, they are made of this

No nemeses of gay love shall deny us

a bird’s eye view of heaven;

two men sharing love’s sweet kiss;

pink clouds, they are made of this

Copyright R. N. Taber 2005; 2019

[Note: An earlier version of this villanelle appears in A Feeling for the Quickness of Time by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2005]