Homage To The Gay Poets Poem by L MILTON HANKINS

I was wondering how many renowned gay poets I know—
Like Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, and Arthur Rimbaud?
Edna St. Vincent Millay and Alice Walker, I am told,
Both Sylvia Plath and Gertrude Stein were rather bold.
The "Beat Generation's" W. H. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac
Emily Dickinson and T. S. Eliot were not free from attack.
Then, there was Paul Verlaine, an exceptional find,
While W. H. Auden and Langston Hughes come to mind.

I wonder what inner conflicts they must have endured
Living in a puritanical society, their sexuality inured.
In compelling verse, they revealed parts of themselves
Some readers carefully hiding their works on the shelves.
Had these marvelous poets not been born out of time
Colorful lives might not have overwhelmed their rhyme.
It is fitting we acknowledge their outstanding contributions
Without undue reference to their personal attributions.