Anonymous asked: This site is brilliant - fitting for a brilliant poet :) After reading the last message thanking you for this tumblr I felt I'd better express my appreciation also.
Just out of curiosity, why cummings? What about his poetry attracts you?
Thanks. :-)
There’s a lot about his poetry that, for lack of a better phrase, speaks to me. Although his punctuation is often what drives people away, I find that it makes me focus more on what he’s actually saying instead of just reading the words (e.g. “un(bee)mo”).
He’s rarely cynical, although he does criticize humanity and our sometimes ridiculousness, and I like that he brings that to light. But so much of his poetry contains the thread of keeping love in your soul. “Since feeling is first” was the first poem of his I ever read, and that’s the idea that I look forward to reading in his work - that no matter what happens, from sadness to death to heartbreak, try to lead with your heart. Find the beauty in the little tiny things (“silence is a looking bird”) or the things that are so ridiculous you have to laugh (“for the reason that i hate people and lean out of this window is love,love”) or, of course, nature in every sense (“here’s to opening and upward”).
All of that, plus so much more that I don’t have the words for.
