Anyone want to discuss the poetry of e.e. cummings?

This little gem came to me in the mail riding on a postcard unsigned.

(sitting in a tree-)
o small you
sitting in a tree-

sitting in a treetop

riding on a greenest

riding on a greener
(o little i)
riding on a leaf

o least who
sing small thing
dance little joy

(shine most prayer)

And here is my e.e. cummings postcard reply:

may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there's never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile

Thanks for this thread Saffron, Cummings is one of the poets I enjoy reading aloud most, have you read this one?

a wind has blown the rain away and blown
the sky away and all the leaves away,
and the trees stand. I think i too have known
autumn too long

(and what have you to say,
wind wind wind

That's the other e.e. cummings poem that so hooked me when I read it a high school textbook. What a coincidence that you chose it. The voice in that is so powerful, almost maniacal; I love it. "and have you the petal of somewhere in your heart/pinched from dumb summer?" I didn't care what that meant (still don't), but the sound and rhythm are great. "O crazy daddy of death" is a favorite synonym for winter.

Did you know that cummings wrote a WW I memoir called The Enormous Room? I've been curious about it. It might be difficult to find, though. (Oh boy, am I still pre-Internet at heart.)
DWill

I've just read this one for the first time and rather like it. The spacing will not be right, but still okay.

i have found what you are like

i have found what you are like
the rain,

(Who feathers frightened fields
with the superior dust-of-sleep. wields

easily the pale club of the wind
and swirled justly souls of flower strike

the air in utterable coolness

deeds of green thrilling light
with thinned

newfragile yellows

lurch and.press

-in the woods
which
stutter
and

sing

And the coolness of your smile is
stirringofbirds between my arms;but
i should rather than anything
have(almost when hugeness will shut
quietly)almost,
your kiss

Always welcome, Cumming's poems.

Another coincidence, I've read it and love love loved it DWill! You're right about it being hard to find, I don't know about your side of the globe but in Aus it's out of print, I had to do some scrimmaging in libraries to get hold of a copy. Anyway, it's a very funny book, reminds me a lot of Heller's Catch-22 if you've read it (I'd call Catch-22 the Enormous room of WWII). It's strange which books stay in print and which fall into obscurity, sometimes it seems to have nothing to do with the quality of the book. Just a couple of similarities between the two books are that both feature a large and quirky group of characters and the narrators describe these characters humanely.

What was the other cummings poem that hooked you?

Thanks for this poem Saffron. The spacing seems pretty good to me, the part before the last stanza seems to evoke the process of rain falling: its lightness which is reflected in the words feather and dust, and also the heaviness of the impact of raindrops ("club of the wind", "lurch and.press") Then, with the lines:

"And the coolness of your smile is
stirringofbirds between my arms;"

The tone shifts from dynamic to a feeling of silence and safety, as though the rain has stopped.

Rose: I much appreciate your comments on the E.E. Cummings poem. I think I'll post another! What do you think of this one?

if i love You

if i love You
(thickness means
worlds inhabited by roamingly
stern bright faeries

if you love
me) distance is mind carefully
luminous with innumerable gnomes
Of complete dream

if we love each (shyly)
other, what clouds do or Silently
Flowers resembles beauty
less than our breathing

And one more -- an all time favorite love poem or really it is a sex poem.

i like my body when it is with your

i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite a new 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 quite so new

I can never get enough of EE poems, Saffron. On "if i love you": I like this one too (but more hesitantly), I think it'll take me a while to make sense of those metaphors. I guess he's trying to get across the idea of a new love affair, thus the sweet hesitancy and the interruption of himself by himself after the first line, he's too nervous to finish his thought coherently. My favourite part is the simple "(shyly)" interruption, actually I think this single word sort of embodies the whole poem for me.

Me too! When I read "(shyly)" I think of the thought: Do I dare to hope that this is possible and the shyness of first realizing that feelings are reciprocated. I think this is one of the most delicious moments in life.

Here's how I break the poem down. If I love you that's good, if you love me, that is better and if we love each other -- what could be better.

You can find an electronic copy of this book online.

The Enormous Room

You have got to be KIDDING! You know what this means--it means I can't hide behind the excuse of not having things to read available.I never thought the work itself would be online. It's pretty darn obscure. But thanks, Saffron....
Will

1(a... (a leaf falls on loneliness)
e.e. cummings

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