Not one
of my better poems today, but one of several adapted from pieces originally
written as song lyrics, but never performed. Even so, it appeared in an
anthology - The Truth from the Game, Poetry Now (Forward Press) 2003 - prior
to my collection.
Many years
ago, I aspired to writing a gay musical with a gay friend who can write music
(I can’t) but our lives took drastically different turns at about the same time,
and we drifted apart. The musical was never written. Years later, I tried to
persuade another (straight) friend to help me.
[No chance!] Oh, well, maybe some dead ends are for the best...
Meanwhile, here’s
wishing peace and happiness to we romantics everywhere, whatever our sexuality.
NO TIME FOR TEARS or SUDDENLY, IT'S SUMMER
Walking in
darkness,
walking
in pain,
I stumbled through life
seeking
love in vain,
till one summer morning,
dew fresh
and clear,
a
fragrance of young roses
in the light,
summer air
as we got
chatting by and by
at a
place near a river
where even the willows
forgot to cry
Laughing
in sunshine,
winging with birds,
first
time in a long time,
no loss
for words;
heard grasshoppers singing
in dew fresh and clear,
a heady fragrance of roses
in the light, summer air
as we got
kissing by and by
at a
place near a river
where even
the willows
forgot to cry
Copyright R. N. Taber 2003; 2005; 2018
Copyright R. N. Taber 2003; 2005; 2018
[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears under the title 'Ode to Summer' in A Feeling for The Quickness Of
Time by R. N. Taber,
Assembly Books, 2005; it was slightly but significantly revised in 2018.]
