Day 4: Poetry of e.e. cummings

I am thankful for the poetry of e.e. cummings. I wouldn't consider myself a 'poetry person'. I've never written a poem, and I probably never will, but I love reading e.e. cummings's poems!

I was introduced to poetry at a young age. Grandma and Grandpa Dotzenrod love to recite poetry. I think it is the coolest thing, actually. I vividly remember our road trip out to California to visit my aunt: Grandma and Grandpa had taken turns memorizing stanzas of their favorite poems and would recite them for us. What a great way for a couple to stay entertained on long road trips! I can't say that I see my parents doing this, but who knows! Maybe if when they finally retire, this is something they'll pick up... hard to see my dad doing that, but who knows!

Back to e.e. cummings, though... The language of his poetry is very sparse, but each line carries so much meaning. He definitely has a very unique style of writing - I can always tell when I am reading something he's written!

Today I am including two of my favorite poems. The first will be familiar to you if you've seen the movie, "In Her Shoes" - it's the poem Cameron Diaz recites during her sister's wedding. The second is a poem I have loved for years - in fact, I love it so much, I have it printed out & framed. It hangs in my bedrooms and serves as a reminder of the kind of love I want in my life!

Enjoy!

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

.......

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look will easily unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands