My Man
Since Feeling
Is First
My man says the wind blows from
the south,
Since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
We go out fishing, he has no
luck,
I catch a dozen, that burns him
up,
Wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world
I face the east and the wind's in
my mouth,
but my man has to have it in the
south.
-Lorine Niedecker
My blood approves,
and kisses are better fate
than wisdom
lady I swear by all flowers. Don't cry
—the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says
We are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph
And death I think is no parenthesis
-E.E. Cummings
Lorine Niedecker's poem My Man shows
the stubbornness of men when it comes
to listening to women. It would be far to
emasculating to be wrong in such a sport
of fishing, especially if the man, or
provider, of the family is being oneupped by a woman. “I catch a dozen, that
burns him up” expresses the anger and
jealousy that he has for her, but his
stubbornness stops him from changing
his ways and listening to her. “My man
says the wind blows from the south”
“I face the east and the wind’s in my
mouth, but my man has to have it in the
south” he would rather be wrong than
listen to a woman.
This poem starts in a place where
there was a certain, defined way that
things had to be and had to be
done. It suggests caring so much
about your partner that you ignore the
way things HAVE to be, just to be with
them. The syntax (law) states a kiss is
special and it has to wait until the time
and place is right according to the
syntax or law, but the poem suggests
breaking free of the law. The love
story goes on when the lovers realize
they can be together for all eternity, in
death, where there will be no
constricting laws.
-Jamie McDonough
-Hope Yang