Those who condemn gay people simply for our sexuality would do well to remember that many gay men and women have risked and given their lives - and continue to do so - to preserve the peace and freedom we all desire.
World War 1 was meant to be a war to end all wars. Yet, it remains one of humankind’s greater tragedies that its history is inclined to repeat itself.
Since World War 2 there have been numerous conflicts around the world, its various peoples suffering immeasurable heartbreak. At the root of it all, an unwillingness of certain politicians to take a common sense let alone humanitarian or democratic view, and others in the business of selling arms (directly or indirectly) who have no wish to see this or that particular gravy train come to a premature halt...and many people around the world continue to think ill of those of us in the LGBT community, I ask you!
If you enjoyed the poem, you may like 'A Poet's Shrewsbury' about World War 1 (closet) gay poet Wilfred Owen. [See blog archives- on the right hand side - October 2012.].
KEEPING COMPANY WITH GHOSTS 2012]
They fought so we may live
(to fight another day?)
among them, men, women
who were gay
World wars over, although
the world still at war,
for such is humankind’s way,
(the politics of power)
Middle East a battleground,
Africa tearing itself apart;
Iraq, Afghanistan, ripping out
poor humanity’s heart
Gay men (and, yes, women)
risk their lives daily, yet
we hear their praises sung
but, oh, so rarely
Oh, and just what has sexuality
to do with a fierce courage
writing up history and daring
to sign each page...?
What, too, of Earth Mother
and peace with one another?
Copyright R. N. Taber 2010; 2017
[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in On The Battlefields of Love by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010.]
Labels: armed services, bigotry, culture, heroes, homophobia, mind-body-spirit, personal space, poetry, posthumous consciousness, religion, sexuality, society, war, war poets, Wilfred Owen, World War One