e. e. cummings

Peregian Beach, Queensland February 2022

e.e cummings is described as the cubist of poets. He was a visual artist and was trying to “wrench language into new meanings by way of fragmented statements”. The lack of capitals and punctuation is deliberate. Richard S. Kennedy in the foreword to a volume of selected poems says the use of lower case and especially for a small i for personal reference was a persona he created to represent “someone who stands away from the crowd, unappreciated, without power, yet able to open his heart with song or mock the follies of society and denounce the pretensions of authority” . If only we could do all that by simply using i.

maggie and milly and molly and may

e. e. cummings

1958

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