And now the time has come
to end what I have begun . . .
to voice the thoughts I carry, to release
the fury of emotions I cannot deny,
to liberate and give strength
to all the years of pain, all the years of hate
all the years of torment now set to escape,
to explode in a roar of blinding force
and shatter the bonds of ignorance . . .
to acknowledge the injustice, the objection of some
to the convictions I hold but now no more,
for like a storm out at sea my fury has no bounds
my anger and my rage I release and direct
at those who deny . . . those who would oppress
my brothers and myself who exist by a code,
an intimate awareness of who we are . . . of how we love
and what we choose and dare to be.

And as I  progress another step
I declare you . . . the perfect gender - image of my sex,
the instrument by which to express every concept
of wonder and enlightenment, of harmony and grace
duality, synchronicity, beauty, energy and strength . . .
and to the rest of the world I can only say
" Fuck the notion of keeping quiet,
of not voicing fears left unspoken between the male sex,
of not admitting the vulnerability, the sensitivity
of desired intimate knowledge . . . in male companionship,
fuck the cowboy ethic
of muscle over brains, of guts before compassion
of all real men being jocks, marines, leather clad butch guys
tuff - fisted businessmen . . .
emotionally . . . sexually . . . politically straight,
who only play to win, who go to war
marry, father children, make money
all of this . . .
without any question, without complaint
without any doubt or possibility
life could be lived any other way. . . "

And everything I've said, everything I've done
every word I've ever written before this moment
has led me this point in time,
in which I must say " Look at me,
and every facet of my true reality
as poet, artist, scientist, shaman, prophet, priest . . .
temporal traveler, cosmic sailor, psychic - warrior
hedonistic, homosexual human being . . .
explorer of all that is old and new,
seeker of truth, child of curiosity . . .

All this and more is who I am,
all these masks the basic elements of my identity
and now I must leave, secure in the knowledge
of all that I am . . . of all that I possess,
inscribed on chains of DNA as I dance
moving in circles of joy, in patterns of rapture
across my progress suite . . .


September 1974
( I wrote this, parts one and two, shortly after I came " OUT "
compelled to express and explain to myself the sense of relief of
being free and dispell years and a sense of anger I no longer
possess. My apologies for use of adult language - in my youth I
was urgent . . . today I'm more secure and self - assured. )