a poem 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
wich 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)


For the most part, I don't like poetry written after 1880. Cummings is the major exception. He speaks to me, even thought I often don't quite understand what he is doing. With cummings, there is understanding and then there is understanding. I'll never really get all the details of his work. I don't think anyone does. That's the point. Each time I read a poem by him, I discover something new. The heart is mysterious and I think that cummings understood his own heart, to some extent. At least, more than I understand mine. I hope that someday I can say that this poem is true for me. Isn't it a beautiful vision? "He who has ears to hear. . ." While cummings certainly isn't concrete, he definitely communicates from the heart.