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I Am Not A Man
by Harold Norse
I am not a man. I can’t earn a living, buy new things for my family. I
have acne and a small peter.
I am not a man. I don’t like football, boxing and cars. I like to
express my feelings. I even like to put my arm around my friend’s shoulder.
I am not a man. I won’t play the role assigned to me – the role created
by Madison Avenue, Playboy, Hollywood and Oliver Cromwell. Television
does not dictate my behavior.
I am not a man. Once when I shot a squirrel I swore that I would never
kill again. I gave up meat. The sight of blood makes me sick. I like
flowers.
I am not a man. I went to prison for resisting the draft. I do not fight
when real men beat me up and call me queer. I dislike violence
I am not a man. I have never raped a woman. I don’t hate blacks. I don’t
get emotional when the flag is waved. I do not think I should love
America or leave it. I think I should laugh at it.
I am not a man. I have never had the clap.
I am not a man. Playboy is not my favorite magazine.
I am not a man. I cry when I’m unhappy.
I am not a man. I do not feel superior to women.
I am not a man. I don’t wear a jockstrap.
I am not a man. I write poetry.
I am not a man. I meditate on Peace and Love.
I am not a man. I don’t want to destroy you.
----
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Norse
Born Harold Rosen to an unmarried Lithuanian Jewish immigrant in
Brooklyn. In the early 1950s, he came up with the new last name, Norse,
by rearranging the letters in Rosen.
He received his B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1938, where he edited the
literary magazine. Norse met Chester Kallman in 1938, and then became a
part of W. H. Auden's "inner circle" when Auden moved to the U.S. in
1939. (Kallman and Auden later became lifelong partners.) However, Norse
soon found himself allied with William Carlos Williams, who rated Norse
the 'best poet of [his] generation.' Norse broke with traditional verse
forms and embraced a more direct, conversational language. Soon Norse
was publishing in Poetry, The Saturday Review and The Paris Review. He
got his master's degree in literature from New York University in 1951.
His first book of poems, The Undersea Mountain, was published in 1953.
From 1954-59 Norse lived and wrote in Italy. He penned the experimental
cut-up novel Beat Hotel[6] in 1960 while living in Paris with William S.
Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso from 1959 to 1963. He
traveled to Tangier, where he stayed with Jane and Paul Bowles.
Returning to America in 1968, Norse arrived in Venice, California, near
Charles Bukowski. He moved to San Francisco in 1972 and lived in the
Mission District of San Francisco for the last 35 years of his life.
Memoirs of a Bastard Angel traces Norse's life and literary career with
Auden, Christopher Isherwood, E. E. Cummings, Tennessee Williams,
William Carlos Williams, James Baldwin, Dylan Thomas, William Burroughs,
Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Paul Bowles, Charles Bukowski,
Robert Graves and Anaïs Nin. With Carnivorous Saint: Gay Poems 1941-1976
Norse became a leading gay liberation poet. His collected poems, In the
Hub of the Fiery Force, appeared in 2003.
Norse is a two-time NEA grant recipient, and National Poetry Association
award winner.
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