e e cummings
There are some writers who truly inspire me and speak to something powerful in my heart. I can’t explain why, but e e cummings is such a writer. As a poet, he first wrote conventional works, but soon he abandoned convention for techniques and styles that were far more suited to his brand of art.
First, I wanted to share the first two lines of one of my favorites. As much as I love the poem itself, it’s the first two lines that I carry around with me.
suppose
Life is an old man with flowers on his head.
I love that. It creates such a fantastic image. The rest of the poem goes on to speak of Life, death and Afterwards. This is among my favorites. There are some that I’m sure will make an appearance here later, such as the poem about the Christmas tree. In the meantime, I am going to share my all-time favorite poem.
It struck me once as a little dirty. I no longer think it’s dirty, but I do think it captures sensations that are hard to put into words. Everytime I read it, I find myself smiling. Please remember that I am adding it here as it was written. e e cummings had his own way of doing things. Hence no capital letters or punctuation in his name. It makes the meaning in his words so much more powerful as they are not caged in the same rules as every other writer before and after him.
i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite new a thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones, and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz
of your electric fur, and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh . . . . And eyes big love-crumbs,
and possibly i like the thrill
of under me you so quite new
So that’s the poem. I love it and I have loved it for years. I may have to share more of his poetry as time goes on. He is worth sharing.