To Express is Power

This is my February 10th work. 🙂

In these pages, it seems that Whitman is grateful he can have sensations at all. Sensuous acts or simply breathing the same air alongside another makes him whole. It’s this wholeness, and ability to satisfy his every waking desire, that provides a sense of control. Human connection drives his every action. How he views others either helps in the short-term for his libido or long-term for the betterment of himself. Though this feels almost carnal and selfish when scrawled in this fashion, it still illuminates how freeing it is to live without worry of the outside world. If Walt Whitman had luscious locks (other than his Santa beard), I’d say this is his way of letting his hair down and welcoming readers to do the same. It is an invitation to leave caution to the wind and express your natural desires; maybe even heighten them. New stigmas present themselves in every era of how someone should carry themselves, dress themselves, aspire to be, but what remains the same throughout history is the desire to be loved and seen.

This could be seen as retroactive, but it was interesting to read about a man being described in a sexual manner and letting the ladies have a breather. Though he did end up going into intense detail about women’s bodies, it was done so after his steamy daydream of masculinity. He then takes the original point and has a field day describing what attracts him so much to men; which leads us back to the idea of blessed expression and how important it is to have an outlet to revel in our healthy sexual desires.

Anyways all this to say, keep the sex poems coming Walt.

2 thoughts on “To Express is Power

  1. Agreeee. I think it’s fantastic that Whitman is able to express sexuality in a way that is intensely descriptive, but no objectifying. He weaves the body and soul together with such beautiful, natural imagery, that it doesn’t feel like he is seeing someone only for one part or another, but rather as a whole, beautiful being. I really appreciate that about his poetry.

  2. I agree! The thing that stands out to me the most is how natural and sort of understated the topic of sexuality is in his poetry. In queer media, even contemporary forms, I look for queerness being regarded as something casual, not strange (or queer) enough to point out or focus on, and the way that he does this is beautiful.

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