On the Intimate nature of Stargazing

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

This entry is from my gay-interest poetry blog for September 2012.

Today’s poem has not appeared on the blog since 2010. So many readers have said they can identify with it, having spent time apart from boyfriends, girlfriends or partners from time to time.

The intensity of missing someone is the same for anyone, of course, gay or straight, but gay people often seem to get left out of even such a timeless equation as this. Yes, even these days, especially where gay relationships are still looked upon as an offence against religion if not morality. So where’s the harm in reminding everyone that we miss loved ones too. [The likes of Giles Muhame please note, although let’s not suppose for a moment that such foolish socio-cultural-religious bigotry exists only in a less enlightened southern hemisphere. Dear me, no, it is everywhere.]

Meanwhile...

Pick  and share a star with a loved one, and you can be sure that finding it again when you miss them most helps hold the dream and bring them that little bit closer.

Whimsical, you say? Well, yes, and why not if it works...? Oh, and it invariably does, believe me. Try it, and see.

ON THE INTIMATE NATURE OF STARGAZING 

Once I wished on a falling star
as lovers the world over will do,
that soon we can be together,
knowing you’ll be wishing too 

The star vanished in the night,
though others kept me company
as I wondered how you are,
knowing you’re thinking of me

I felt even closer to you then
than at times when you’re here,
fighting back tears, the zen 
of star-crossed lovers anywhere 

No heavens frowning upon us
(see the Old Man take our part)
only the world’s prejudices
would force us, gay lovers apart 

For now, they may have won
a battle or two, but never say die,
for love will see us through
in this as in darker years gone by 

For every person wishing us ill,
others echo Earth Mother, calling
on us to live, love, and follow
a dream for every star that's falling 

May we each find joy and peace
in one another, wherever we may be,
make the world a kinder place,
let all its star-crossed lovers go free

Copyright R N Taber 2012, 2019 

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in Tracking the Torchbearer by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2012]