I Am Not A Man

Harold Norse

I’m not a man, I can’t earn a living, buy new things for my family.
I have acne and a small peter.

I’m not a man. I don’t like football, boxing and cars.
I like to express my feeling. I even like to put an arm
around my friend’s shoulder.

I’m 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’m 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’m not a man. I went to prison resisting the draft. I do not fight
when real men beat me up and call me queer. I dislike violence.

I’m not a man. I have never raped a woman. I don’t hate blacks.
I do not 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’m not a man. I have never had the clap.

I’m not a man. Playboy is not my favorite magazine.

I’m not a man. I cry when I’m unhappy.

I’m not a man. I do not feel superior to women

I’m not a man. I don’t wear a jockstrap.

I’m not a man. I write poetry.

I’m not a man. I meditate on peace and love.

I’m not a man. I don’t want to destroy you

San Francisco, 1972

Harold Norse was a Beat writer and Poet who wrote in plain English. He openly expressed his sexuality in his poems in the 30's and 40's making him a pioneer gay liberationist.  Born in 1916 in Brooklyn to an unwed Jewish immigrant he changed his name as an adult  scrambling his family name of Rosen to Norse. He went to Brooklyn college graduating in 1938 the same year he was to meet Chester Kallman who would become his lover.   At this tim e he met and became personal assistant to W.H. Auden until Auden and Kallman became lovers (a relationship that lasted their entire lives). Norse continued to publish poetry, became friends with William Carlos Williams who called Norse the greatest poe of Norse's generation, and returned to his education at New York University earning his masters in 1951.

He became an expatriate in 1954 living in Italy and later moving into what became known as the Beat Hotel in Paris with William S Burrough and Allen Ginsberg from 1959 until 1963. "The Beat Hotel" became the title of his experimental "cut-up" novel published in 1960. In 1968 he returned to the United States living in Venice, California near Charles Bukowski until moving to theMission District in San Francisco in 1972. He lived there until his death of natural causes on June 9th of this year.