poetry with a lowercase p .... and my old pal e.e.

Spencer,

I know we were recently discussing poetry and I'm still reading some Bukowski that I am hoping I can share with you.... but while I was sifting through that stuff with virgin eyes, I also stumbled upon an e.e. cummings collection in picture book format on display at the library and I couldn't resist delving into this mini collection of love poems by a favorite poet of mine. I am sure you've probably seen these before but I have to say I like them or at least certain bits of them quite a bit. Just for fun, I've added "emphasis" to my favorite lines by coloring them... These lines aren't meant to "mean" anything deeper to me than they might at face value, I guess. Finding a spattering of words or images I like... that resonate.... is a bit is like tasting a ripe raspberry. One is fantastic. Another is better... A handful is worth the thorny challenge of collecting them even though they promise only a moments delight. I find the tart memory of the flavor can last. I am sure there are other e.e. cummings poems I might even prefer or rate higher than these... but some of these were new to me and all of them were in that book. Today's source material. I hope you find something to savor in these.

Love,
Kate


since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
—the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

--------------------------------------------

in the rain-
darkness, the sunset
being sheathed i sit and
think of you

the holy
city which is your face
your little cheeks the streets
of smiles

your eyes half-
thrush
half-angel and your drowsy
lips where float flowers of kiss

and
there is the sweet shy pirouette
your hair
and then

your dancesong
soul. rarely-beloved
a single star is
uttered, and i

think

of you

------------------------------

up into the silence the green
silence with a white earth in it

you will(kiss me)go

out into the morning the young
morning with a warm world in it

(kiss me)you will go

on into the sunlight the fine
sunlight with a firm day in it

you will go(kiss me

down into your memory and
a memory and memory

i)kiss me,(will go)

-----------------------------------

it is so long since my heart has been with yours
shut by our mingling arms through
a darkness where new lights begin and
increase,
since your mind has walked into
my kiss as a stranger
into the streets and colours of a town--
that i have perhaps forgotten
how,always(from
these hurrying crudities
of blood and flesh)Love
coins His most gradual gesture,
and whittles life to eternity
--after which our separating selves become museums
filled with skilfully stuffed memories