#poetry selection

[mournfulroses]

Yehuda Amichai, from Selected Poetry of Y. Amichai; “The End of Elul,” (edited)

[mournfulroses]

Susan Mitchell, from a poem titled "Lost Parrot," featured in The Atlantic Monthly

[mournfulroses]

Alexander Blok, from a poem titled "Snow Wine," featured in The Twelve & Other Poems

[literarygalpals]

Poetry Selection

One criticism of butch/femme relationships or the dynamic in general is that they simply re-create the gendered power imbalances of traditional heterosexual relationships, with the butch acting in the masculine role. When reading these poems, I initially saw the logic in such criticism. For example, in “Roll me over and make me a rose”, it says “You grasping me I could be unsure/of my turn-on/before arising/But riding your command I am carried away/You move in faster than/I can decide/to trust you” (Scarlet Woman). That doesn’t exactly scream of consent. Similarly, in “When she wears a tie for me”, the narrator’s butch partner describes her sexual appeal: “It’s phallic,/she says. Innate, totemic/strength. I concede” and “wanting her tie/in my mouth, down my throat./[...]/I’d slowly lick its tip” (Christine Cassidy). These very sexual, graphic, explicitly masculine descriptions of this butch/femme couple create images of familiar dynamics: masculinity/strength and femininity/weakness, and passivity (”I concede”). However, after reading “The femme poem” I couldn’t fully accept the criticism. This poem completely blew me away; my entire perspective shifted after hearing a femme perspective that acknowledged but then disregarded the problematic aspects of her relationship with a butch. She writes “But what I want is you, a woman./Alloffyou./[...]/Because with you it’s finally safe/To be a woman” (Pat Califia). Despite the “broken windows”, “black eyes”, and “jealous rages” - hallmarks of stereotypical heterosexual domestic abuse - she feels safe because her “abuser” is a woman. I especially resonated with the lines “The feminine qualities/That win me the world’s contempt/Put a light in your eyes”. Being in a lesbian relationship is like a respite from the world, an escape from a society that consistently devalues and denigrates women. A recurring theme in the poems was sexual and emotional reciprocity: “the lover’s part is to give what she likes best” (Pam A. Parker), “I knew she was all mine/[...]/I longed for her to take me” (Christine Cassidy), “the pleasure/was in giving,/[...]/the pleasure was in taking/care and taking time” (Laurie Hoskin). I incorporate this into everything, but these poems were like a reiteration of “The Woman-Identified Woman” by Radicalesbians (1970). Women associating with and loving women is never a negative. 

-Amber

[literarygalpals]

The Femme Poem, Pat Califia

The Femme Poem by Pat Califia centers around her discussing her experience as a femme lesbian. Califia writes about her desires for butch women and she tries to tease out what makes her attracted to the masculine energy of butch women, but not attracted to men. This poem, as well as many in this collection, seemed to share this theme of making a distinction between men and butch women. Much of the poem is dedicated to Califia describing women she desires and the masculine qualities that they possess, such as as the clothes they wear or the way they act. Additionally, Califia points out that even butch women have internalized the idea that femme women are secretly straight. She recounts how butch women have said to her “if you want me, you must want a man.” Califia counters this argument by asserting that she wants “a woman” and says “I know how to make love to / Your woman’s body / without taking your masculinity away.” To me, it seems like the central difference that a lot of authors are trying to get at is that women have a shared experience with each other that men do not possess. In other words, women have a distinct bond with other women due to their shared experience of being a women in our patriarchal society. Califia again reinforces this point by saying how her lover understands her as well: “because with you it’s finally safe / to be a woman.”

- giselle 

[literarygalpals]

Poetry Selection

Reading through the poems for today, I found that a main tying theme was the depiction of intimacy through sex. Some of the poems were so graphically sexual that it felt like almost a sort of protest, a denouncement of sterilizing same sex relationships for mainstream consumption.

The poems also had a major collective theme of butch and femme dynamics in lesbian relationships. In “When she wears a tie for me,” the narrator describes just what the title says. A tie is seen as a stereotypically masculine piece of clothing, but I found it interesting that the ties in this poem are describes as “silk” and “satin,” which conveys an element of femininity in my mind. In “Der Rosenkavalier,” the poem begins, “Travesty, we call it, when a women plays a man…” While a metaphor for the disdain for the existence of butch women, I immediately thought of the double standard with men playing female roles for much of history.  

Lastly, I briefly looked up the poet Patrick Califia, and found it interesting that, according to Wikipedia, “Califia is a bisexual trans man. Prior to transitioning, he identified as a lesbian…” I am not sure how, or if, that changes any of the context or meaning of his poems. It does seem striking in “Gender Fuck Gender,” and I am not sure whether to interpret the explicit imagery as a symbol of desire/intimacy for butch women, or gender dysphoria. Prior to this new information, I saw it as drawn out, extreme imagery that merely served to convey the narrator’s desire and comfort in taking on a more masculine role, but now I read it as gender dysphoria. Read without information on his transition, this poem’s ambiguity in intent and desire is fairly reminiscent of our debate on Stephen’s identity in “The Well Of Loneliness”

-Caroline