Trailblazers

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

A new poem today, a tell-tale sign that I am fighting depression; the latest of many battles against an old enemy; thanks to creative therapy of the kind writing poetry provides that I may well lose some, but am winning the war.

Charles Darwin changed the way we think about the origin of our species; Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that continues to inspire the Black Lives Matter campaign;  closer to home, here in the UK, footballer Marcus Rashford has successfully called for free school meals for children from poorer families while schools are closed; actor Chadwick Boseman who has tragically died of colon cancer at the age of 43 has left an inspiring legacy for black actors worldwide … all these, and many others, are trailblazers and will remain trailblazers, a ‘live’ posthumous consciousness in hearts and minds worldwide.

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” - Oscar Wilde  

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” - James Baldwin

“We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.”  

- Martin Luther King Jr.

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Eleanor Roosevelt

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.” -  Helen Keller

TRAILBLAZERS

Assume nothing of humankind,

the Here-and-Now, part reality, part dream

fronting backroads of the mind

fuelling human nature, potential for nurture

(for better, for worse, gift or curse)

where formative years dare come into play

in the making, shaping of all we are

subject to question, reason and human nature’s

expectation of our futures

Ignore any negative voices

never backward in coming forward to tear

into human choices failing the test

of whatever is best for the rest of us has to be

right, invariably losing sight

of any aspiration, inspiration, presented

as a Human Right, while prevented

from seeing the light of day if failing to conform

to some ‘acceptable’ norm

Acceptable to whom, we may ask

having reached a point where we feel confident

of whatever task ahead may well be

misinterpreted under such various pretensions

designed to present gender identity,

and sexuality as a perverse intellectuality

failing (altogether)to see diversity

as a plus, not a minus, an acknowledged integrity

across a common humanity

Dare let that inner self go free, and pit itself against

any socio-cultural-sexual angst...?

Copyright R. N. Taber 2020

[Note: This post-poem also appears on my gay-interest blog today.]