http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
Now, I am
often asked why I write poetry. While I
think of myself as a poet who happens to be gay rather than a gay poet, the gay
input to my poetry is especially important to me. Hopefully, gay readers will
enjoy relating to it, if only in part, while the less gay-friendly heterosexual reader is invited
to put aside any outdated, misleading, and often offensive stereotypes that
continue to attach themselves to the whole gay ethic in the minds of the less
enlightened. Much the same can be said of my approach to fiction; I haven't written many novels and none have been bestsellers although they sold well and feedback was mixed but on the whole appreciative; as with my poetry, I have tried to reach a mixed readership, and enjoyed every minute of it. Anyone interested can read my fiction in serial form on my Fiction in the Subject Field blog; synopses at:
Now,
although I enjoy socialising, I am also a very private person. I have never
kept a journal because I hate the idea of anyone accessing details of my
private life and thoughts when I am no longer around to qualify what I wrote.
At the same time, my poems are journal pages of a kind; few are strictly
autobiographical, but each and every one turns on the kind of person I am,
warts ‘n’ all.
Many of
my poems have been inspired by conversations with all sorts of people - men and
women, gay and straight alike - who have told me about themselves as this bar,
that bus queue…wherever. The subsequent poem is as much
their story
as mine. At the same time, how I chose to write the poem illustrates
my train of thought upon hearing and
often relating to what they had to say and mulling it over for hours, weeks,
months, and even years. My fiction takes shape in much the same way although I, personally, find poetry
both more expansive and inclusive. Any readers interested, may like to visit my fiction blog sometime, details at:
https://rogertaberfiction.blogspot.com/2016/05/news-updates-fiction.html
Writing poetry, like any creative process, exercises the
inner eye in seeing even what is sometimes considered (by whom?) best overlooked. We all need to see and feel in order to try and understand;
every artist wants to share his or
her insight, feelings, and subsequent
understanding - flawed though it may well be - with others.
Past-present-future, the poetry of yesterday-today-tomorrow, the stuff of dreams and personal space, seeing as through ... whatever.
Oh, and, by the way, I was born on a sloping dead-end street.
POETRY, RITES OF WAY or ENGAGING WITH MIND-BODY-SPIRIT
When this
life ceases to be,
my spirit
left to feed on eternity,
what will
they think of me
who drank
my wine at table,
doubted I
was even able
to write
at all or, at least, as well
as one
might who always
kept
Mount Parnassus in sight,
despite
the English climate?
Oh, I
dare say they were right,
but I’ve
so enjoyed being a poet,
lapping
up all criticism, praise,
scepticism,
quips about simplicity,
a serious
lack of intellectuality,
how
gay-interest poetry undermines
a proud
genre’s finer integrity,
compromises
the very aesthetic
of its
history and spirituality
I've
heard it’s a cardinal sin
to lower
the tone, let anyone in
on a
poem, its place in the arts
intended
to impress, access
only
partly allowed or its mystery
all but
solved, and that way
(surely?)
anarchy lies. Whatever,
a poet
will always have the edge
on Mr,
Mrs, and Ms Average
Although but
mortal, mind and body
expect more of the human spirit
Copyright
R. N. Taber 2005; 2012
[Note: An earlier version of this poem was mistakenly published under its draft title 'Requiem for a Poet' in A Feeling for the Quickness Of
Time by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2005.]
.jpg)