Poetry--a few favorites

[nootka]

For some reason this time of year, I tend to enjoy reading new poetry and of course enjoying old (maybe it's the dose of "spring fever" we got here today in the form of sun and warmth.

Not too many years ago, my Dad relinquished his battered copy of "Complete Poems" by e.e. cummings.

It is an amazing book, and all the more so for my Dad's notes in the margins and anywhere there was space.

Many of these poems my Dad knows by heart and he would recite them during our road trips and walks at various local parks and beaches, or apropos occasions, so they always elicit enjoyable memories for me.

e.e. cummings has a very "different" style of writing, but that is perhaps why I really enjoy them, as the way the poems are laid out and the unconventional use of punctuation and capitalization (or the lack of it) help bring home the message.

Here are a few of my favorites:

so standing,our eyes filled with wind,and the

whining rigging over us,i implore you to

notice how the keen ship lifts(skilfully

like some bird which is all birds but more fleet)

herself against the air---and whose do you

suppose possibly are certain hands,terse

and invisible,with large first new stars

knitting the structure of distinct sunset

driving white spikes of silence into joists

hewn from hugest colour

(and which night hoists

miraculously above the always

beyond such wheres and fears or any when

unwondering immense directionless

horizon)

-----do you perhaps know these workmen?

___________________________________________________________

maggie and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach(to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)

it's always ourselves we find in the sea

_______________________________________________

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 of 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)

_________________________________________________

the little horse is newlY

Born)he knows nothing,and feels

everything;all around whom is

perfectly a strange

ness Of sun

light and of fragrance and of

Singing)is ev

erywhere(a welcom

ing dream:is amazing)

a worlD.and in

this world lies:smoothbeautifuL

ly folded;a(brea

thing and a gro

Wing)silence,who;

is:somE

oNe.

______________________________________

"o purple finch

please tell me why

this summer world(and you and i

who love so much to live)

must die"

"if i

should tell you anything"

(that eagerly sweet carolling

self answers me)

"i could not sing"

-e.e. cummings

_______________________________

Would love to to sample others' favorites.

Liz M.

 

[susanne]

liz,

It's so good to read favorites of another poetry connoisseur! I'm working on a couple of deadlines this morning, but will add a few of my favorites a bit later.