Love, Enduring

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

The great thing about love is that it (unlike some people) does not discriminate with regard to ethnicity, religion, sex or sexuality. 

Nor, I suspect, would any God if we are to believe the general tenor of Holy Books without interpreting them to suit this or that particular point of view as so many clerics of all religious persuasions are frequently inclined. [While I, personally, cannot relate to religion, I can relate to nature and who's to say what we call 'God' isn't everything that is nature?]

Only people deliberately choose to discriminate against others. Thank goodness the more enlightened among humankind remains a majority (if only just in some parts of the world) and love endures. 

Be sure the love enjoyed by gay and transsexual men and women worldwide is no less natural or precious than the love enjoyed by any among the heterosexual majority; nor does it deserve that its integrity should be called into question by some blinkered bigot who enjoys the sound of his or her voice, especially when invoking a sense of power over the more gullible and/or vulnerable among us. 

It makes me so angry when I hear the less enlightened in societies worldwide trying to convince young gay people otherwise; invariably they resort to emotional blackmail, often bringing sensitive family and religious issues into play which, as far as I'm concerned, only goes to show the extent of their desperation to prove themselves right and the rest of us wrong.

Many years ago, I expressed sympathy to a couple at their daughter's funeral to which the mother thanked me, smiled and said, 'No worries, my friend. She spent years in a loveless marriage and now she's on Freedom Road where one day we'll all meet up again. Besides," she added, "Love doesn't stop when the heart does, you know, it's always a part of you. and you of it."

LOVE, ENDURING

It was midwinter, but in your arms,

a sunny summer’s heat,

on your lips, a taste of spring

Snow flurries kindly wrapped us up

in balls of cotton wool

hid us from cruel prejudices

Spring came, its songs of love and joy

flowering in our hearts,

outing us to family and friends

Come summer, we’d run hand in hand

this gauntlet and that…

of sneers, jeers, crass remarks

By autumn, we were sick of persistently

being dumped or worse

on piles of red, dead, leaves

Come midwinter, we moved in together,

resolved to give a party,

and those who came were glad for us

Seasons come and go, but in your arms

a sunny summer’s heat,

on your lips, a taste of spring

[Note: This poem appears under the title 'Love Endures' in Accomplices to Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007]