Tuesday, April 21, 2009

am i not i -- here?


watercolour by karen stefano

throughout my life i have not held much interest in being "a man". by definition it is a limited role. it holds back men and many of the "men" i know and love have left it behind. we are who we are. with little regard for the autocracy of expectation attached to what is essentially a genetic tag.

i have loved and love being a person. as whole as i can allow myself to be. as incomplete as my fears will allow myself to be.

here's how william carlos williams expresses this:

transitional

first he said:

it is the woman in us

that makes us write--

let us acknowledge it--

man would be silent.

we are not men

therefore we can speak

and be conscious

(of the two sides)

unbent by the sensual

as befits accuracy.

i then said:

dare you make this

your propaganda?

and he answered:

am i not i--here?


[(from the tempers, 1913) the collected earlier poems]

copyright © 1917, 1921 four seas company, copyright © 1934, the objectivist press, copyright © 1935, the alcestis press, copyright © 1936, reginald lane latimer, copyright © 1938, new directions publishing corporation, copyright © 1938, 1941, 1951 william carlos williams, copyright © 1966, florence h. williams

2 comments:

  1. Indeed, Steven, this post describes you to a "t".

    ReplyDelete
  2. yes, it says something of what i've known and accepted for a long time.
    steven

    ReplyDelete