In celebration of National Poetry Month this week’s staff pick is the works of E.E. Cummings. Known for his experimentation with form, punctuation, spelling and syntax, Cummings was the second most widely read poet in the US at the time of his death and remains one of the world’s most popular poets. His playful style and simple language make him an easy poet to love. Check out E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems, 1904-1962; or, for a quicker read try 95 Poems.
Here’s one of his most popular:
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)
