PAGE 20 HIGH GEAR⚫JUNE 1980
By Gregg Leach
To Bobbie Wolk (who may or may not become self-evident) Slightly revised with definite style in mind.
So now I'm doing something nice And relaxing like listening To stereo and chimes, doing Sing-aong and bopping, writing you! um feeling quite pleased with myself (Thank You) and contented, at least For this evening. And I just might make Another telephone call.
The perfect fantasy phone call. A Call to "the guy I've been seeing for 6 mo." to talk just about Nothing for 15/20 minutes. (For hearing each other's voices before bedding down and dreaming of each other's touchings.)
This poem was read by Rev. Robert Wheatley, director of the Unitarian Group for Gay Concerns, during worship at First Unitarian Church, Columbus, Ohlo:
By Edward A. Frost
Poetry
Well, I told you I was a poet. So. we do pretty deams. O.K.?
My poems are must inspired. The words neither come nor go as bidden.
It is an undisciplined, undirected
act.
The soundings string themselves
together
In short lived arrangement and jumble back
To disarrayt. I merely capture with finger
Twirls and paper what slides across My Psyche in full fade sequence.
III.
I will not play Fred and Ginger tonight.
(Or hard stare hunk with crotch thrust forward).
No fantasy roll playing for the bar
crowds
moments of life
to let nothing escape
Satisfaction this spring night. But I will Touch you softly, kiss your neck, hold close (And be damned if heads turn or don't).
I am with you tonight. The friend from Out-of-town. A private dream whose driven down For a
weekend's pleasure and long
growth remembering. We will do as we please for each other's private joys. A sharing between we two that no future Re-telling can
pass on to others. A bubble enclosed Episode two days long. two souls wide.
If they choose to look, let them. Jealously or laughingly. In envy or amustment. I move and sing tonight for you alone. In clumsy Stumbled pattersn or graceful languid extensions Of limb and soul. Preplanned and plotted or in Extemporaneous exuberance. Their interest is of no concern.
feared.
The blanket that covers your
what two could grasp and hold closeness together
Now
Make of that love
A dread secret.
is a weight of guilt and shame. That is the living of your love. And remember--
You are "perverted, deviant, and immoral."
Think of a love you feel Or one of Pretend in the presence of the You are a "sinner apart from
the past
still living in your spirit.
Think of the passion, the longing
the impatience of incomplete-
ness
When not in the other's presence
The need to share life and the
world
That it is not.
Do not touch.
Do not be together too often
except within your own circle. Keep that love you cherish
in a cloud of noise and ridicule. Know that your love is hated and
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God."
This is love.
This is the joy of human existence;
The reason for being. Can you bear it?
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Teachers and fear
Two members of New York's Gay Teachers Association-libraian Phyllis Yuill and English teacher Joseph Zogby are working on a book dealing with the situation of gay educators and students. Tentatively entitled The Fear Factor, the book will examine the ways in which fear of homosexuality affects the lives and behavior of gay and non-gay teachers, stu dents, administrators, parents, and union officials. There will also be chapters devoted to curriculum issues, psychiatric opin-
ions, analyses of homophobia; and case histories of discrimination.
The authors would appreciate hearing from anyone who is able and willing to contribute to the book by being interviewed, making referrals, or writing articles to be included. Write or call either Phyllis Yuill, 244 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11238... (212) 622-7481; or Joseph Zogby, 16 West 16th Street, Apt. 7T-S, New York, N.Y. 10011, (212) 255-5969.
Coming out is healthy
By J. Moris
TORONTO-The impact of current political and economic trends on the lives of gay people was the topic of a workshop held here April 9 as part of the 57th annual meeting of the American Orthopsychiatric Association. Stanley J. Weinberg, a New
York psychotherapist, movingley related hiw own experience of coming out professionally. The fear, shame and guilt of staying in the closet is too high a price to pay for one's mental health and effectiveness as a professional, he said..
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Briefings for House gay bill
WASHINGTON, D.C. On April 21, the first Congressional Briefings were held on H., 2074, the federal lesbian and gay rights bill in the House of Representatives. The briefings and the testimony presented at them were coordinated by Representative Ted Weiss and Henry Waxman, the bill's chief sponsors, who were assisted by the Gay Rights National Lobby.
Said Steve Endean, Executive Director of the Gay Rights National Lobby. "The testimony was strong and representative of the breadth of our support....The attendance at the briefings by Congressional offices was
excellent."
bill
We had worked hard," Endean said, "through 'Dear Colleague Letters' from Represenatives Weiss and Waxman, letters from the Lobby, and pressure from the local level to assure. such attendance."
Endean described the Briefings as being a "dress rehearsal". for Congressional Hearings on the bill, which are expected to take place next Spring..
about the briefings, "They could Said Representative Waxman not have gone better. We feel cerincreased understanding of the tain that they will result in issue and bring us an increase in \co-sponsorship." Waxman said Endean said that between "40 that he and his colleague, Repreand 50" representatives of Consentative Weiss, deeply appregressional offices attended the ciated the extensive help" that brielings, most of them represent Nationaldohl enting members of Congress has been giving them. who have not yet endorsed the