I have always loved this poet. I have read his poetry since I was a wee lad and liked it even when I didn't get it. Many people think he was a verbal trickster with all of his prose acrobatics, and his refusals to capitalize any words but "God." I am always stimulated and inspired when I read his stuff. Whenever you see people writing with no capitols you are either seeing extreme laziness or they are emulating cummings. Here is one of my favorite poems that I set to music and was performed at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice last year. It is a beautiful prayer.i thank you God for most this amazing... by e. e. cummings
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
5 comments:
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
This is my favorite part of the poem. He echos David in his prayer to the Lord in 1st Chronicles. "Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said:
"Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?"
ee is badass. where are all of our artists and poets who were such men? it's a beautiful poem like so much of his work.
Amazing. When we capitalize, we are placing importance on one word over another. Apparently ee understood that only God's name deserved this privelege.
yeah I think he did understand. He was also a rough New Yorker.
I don't know Cach. I wonder the same things all the time. I never read or find poetry these days that I actually like to read or that just blows me away.
Pop culture has certainly taken its toll on artistry.
that's a great poem! i'd never read that one before.
I wonder if our schools are sucking all of the creativity out of kids today? They spend so much time preparing for tests that they can't really enjoy learning for the sake of learning. They don't have time for creativity.
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