Keeping Company with Ghosts

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

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.] 

War, War, War

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

D-Day June 6^th 1945 was the beginning of what was meant to be an end; an end to World War 2, that is. And, yes it was....Ah, but an end to war? Fat chance!

Today and always, out thoughts, thanks and admiration go to fighting men and women around the world; to their families as well, left to fight battles of a different if no less anxious kind on Home Fronts just about everywhere...

It is one of humankind's greater tragedies that the cost of war in terms of its suffering is always so high, while any subsequent peace never quite enough.

Our hearts go out to men, women, and children caught up in bitter conflicts around the world and to the millions of refugees displaced by them...while those in whose hands Peace lies sleeping continue to play politics.

WAR, WAR, WAR

Great grandpa died in the First World War
alongside other brave men
who thought it was the war to end all wars,
but…it happened again

Grandpa was killed in the Second World War
alongside other brave men
who thought to win a kinder, safer, world,
but…it happened again

My father went to fight in the Falklands War
alongside other brave men;
mixed feelings about why they were there,
and…it happened again

My brother was injured in the First Gulf War
alongside other brave men
who little thought they would be coming back
to fight much the same war again

My sister is on active service  in Afghanistan

alongside other men and women

for whom bravery is all but second nature,

part of a job that needs to be done

War is always in the news, its men and women

immortalised in prayer and song;
My mother always says the doves of peace

are too scared of us to stay long

[From: Tracking the Torchbearer by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2012]