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]

Where Now ...? OR Anatomy of a Sunset

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

We all make mistakes or wish we had done things differently as we go through life. We can but move on, and try not to make the same mistakes again although some will inevitably return to haunt us from time to time.

In my experience, few sights compare with a beautiful sunset for stirring up regrets for time passing, time lost, and our own shortcomings…

WHERE NOW …? or ANATOMY OF A SUNSET

Where do you go after sunset

(alone or with someone)

since that last time we met?

My heart’s asking, can’t forget

though we’re long gone...

Where do you go after sunset?

For me, alone, you came out,

and have you kissed anyone

since that last time we met..?

This lonely heart aches for it,

your body against mine…

Where do you go after sunset?

Once, time short if bitter-sweet;

ever after, no comparison

since that last time we met

Forsworn, the politics of regret

for putting love on the line…

Where do you go after sunset

since that last time we met?

Copyright R. N. Taber 2004; 2013

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