Confusion in the Midst of the Poetry

           One thing that I find confusing in all of Lorine Niedecker's poetry is that fact that her poetry doesn't seem to follow any sort of similar organization. They are all set up in different ways and I find that that makes it hard for me to follow and process the poetry. In some instances it even makes it hard for me to interpret the meaning of the poetry because I just find it very difficult to follow. 

           Her work is very beautiful though. I love the way she talks about all the animals and the nature around her. Her description is magnificent. I particularly loved the one poem in which she mentioned the thing about the birds. It was the lines that said: "Thru birdstard, wingdrip, weed-drift." Something about that line is very beautiful when I look at it and I just really really like it. In some weird way it just kind of relaxes me and it calms me down. It makes me forget about the complexities of life and the frustrating things I deal with on a day to day basis. All her poetry has that effect on me, comparable to a nice cup of tea or cup of coffee. It's nice read something that helps you unwind and relax and just make all the stress melt away.

           I just wish her poems were longer because with how she writes her poems would be amazing if they were longer. That isn't to say that they aren't already amazing, but it would give us all more of her amazing poetry to read and unwind with.

The Guy Code

The Guy Code

         From a very young age I was exposed to this supposed "Guy Code" that we read about in our text book. The "Guy Code" made the earlier years of my life a nightmare to say the very least. I often woke up wondering why I was being treated the way I was. I didn't know what I had done to deserve it. I feel like most people don't know why they are treated poorly by the people around them. Still to this day I question why I was treated so poorly at a young age, I have suspicions and guesses, but I will never know for sure what I did wrong to deserve being treated the way I was treated. But I was different from other boys.

       When I read "The Guy Code" I was able to draw parallels to my life very easily. It felt like I was the opposite of so many of these predominantly masculine traits. It made me ask the question: Is this why I was treated so poorly by my father? Growing up I was treated poorly by my father. He didn't have a father figure growing up and I have come to blame that for his behavior. He depended upon his friends to show him what the guy code was, and, in a way, they taught him how to later abuse his son.

       Growing up I was very emotional and I tended to show my emotions through tears and words instead of the usual masculine tradition of going out and beating up my problems. From an early age my father would yell at me for crying or being afraid of something. He would call me a wimp and tell me to grow up. He didn't even remotely understand the basics of being a good father, and, as a result, I suffered. I was a wimp because I was afraid of spiders, or because I didn't like scary movies, or because I had nightmares.

       Upon  reading the essay on the guy code I realized just how damaging these standards are to the emotional and psychological health of little boys across the nation or the globe for that matter. These standards, in some ways, can cause a resentment and abusiveness to the people around them. I feel like it is the boys who are harassed and teased growing up that tend to abuse their children more as a sort of revenge to all the people who were cruel to them growing up. Sometimes I notice a resentment towards fathers, even among my own friends. They resent their father because he didn't stand up for them or help them, he simply told them to "grow a pair and fight". Fighting isn't always the answer.

      Look at congress. They fight each other tooth and nail everyday. Is this as a result of this ridiculous "guy code" that prevents males from having any emotion at all and turns us into mindless and unfeeling humans? I feel that this code does more damage than it prevents. Fighting isn't the answer to anything, nor is being stubborn or anything else that the code preaches about. Diplomacy and flexibility are what make boys into men. Standing up for our beliefs and feelings and not backing down is what men really are.

     Why do we follow this code? What purpose does it serve us males or anybody else for that matter? I felt the impact of this code, and I still do everyday when I walk through school and observe the people around me. Why this code is so important most of us will never know, but I end this post with one question: why do males choose to invest so much time into such a primitive and irrelevant code?