e. e. cummings
because it's Spring thingS dare to do people (& not the other way round)because it 's A pril Lives lead their own persons(in stead of everybodyelse's)but what's wholly marvellous my Darling is that you & i are more than you & i(be ca us e It's we)Collection: Spring
the poems to come are for you and for me and are not for mostpeople... you and i are human beings; mostpeople are snobs.Collection: Snob
a man who had fallen among thieves lay by the roadside on his back dressed in fifteenthrate ideas wearing a round jeer for a hatCollection: Men
O to be in finland/ now that russia's here)Collection: Russia
All in green went my love ridingCollection: Riding
Humanity i love you because you are perpetually putting the secret of life in your pants and forgetting it's there and sitting down on it and because you are forever making poems in the lap of death Humanity i hate youCollection: Hate
more each particular person is(my love) alive than every world can understand and now you are and i am now and we're a mystery that will never happen again, a miracle which has never happened before and shining this our now must come to thenCollection: Shining
(and from my thighs which shrug and pant a murdering rain leapingly reaches the upward singular deepest flower which she carries in a gesture of her hips)Collection: Rain
Now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened.Collection: Nature
...and down they forgot as up they grew.Collection: Grew
...losing through you what seemed myself, i find selves unimaginably mine; beyond sorrow's own joys and hopings very fears yours is the light by which my spirit's born: yours is the darkness of my soul's return... you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars.Collection: Soulmate
Tumbling-hair picker of buttercups violets dandelions And the big bullying daisies through the field wonderful with eyes a little sorry Another comes also picking flowersCollection: Bullying
may my heart always be open to little birds who are the secrets of living whatever they sing is better than to know and if men should not hear them men are old may my mind stroll about hungry and fearless and thirsty and supple and even if it's sunday may i be wrong for whenever men are right they are not young and may myself do nothing usefully and love yourself so more than truly there's never been quite such a fool who could fail pulling all the sky over him with one smileCollection: Love Yourself
Every artist's strictly illimitable country is himself. An artist who plays that country false has committed suicide; and even a good lawyer cannot kill the dead. But a human being who's true to himself - whoever himself may be - is immortal; and all the atomic bombs of all the antiartists in spacetime will never civilize immortality.Collection: Suicide
True wars are never won.Collection: War
hopes dance best on bald men's hairCollection: Hope
May my mind stroll about hungry and fearless and thirsty and supple and even if its sunday may i be wrong for whenever men are right they are not youngCollection: Sunday
Damn everything but the circus! ...damn everything that is grim, dull, motionless, unrisking, inward turning, damn everything that won't get into the circle, that won't enjoy. That won't throw it's heart into the tension, surprise, fear and delight of the circus, the round world, the full existence.Collection: Heart
So far as I am concerned, poetry and every other art was and is and forever will be strictly and distinctly a question of individuality... If poetry is your goal, you've got to forget all about punishments and all about rewards and all about self-styled obligations and duties and responsibilities etcetera ad infinitum and remember one thing only: that it's you - nobody else - who determine your destiny and decide your fate. Nobody else can be alive for you; nor can you be alive for anybody else... There's the artist's responsibility; and the most awful responsibility on earth.Collection: Wisdom
The sensual mysticism of entire vertical being.Collection: Sensual
Certainly the most obvious . . . example of the strictly infantile essence of America's all-conquering mentality greets our eyes daily, anywhere and everywhere, in the guise of the tabloid newspaper. The tabloid newspaper actually means to the typical American of the era what the Bible is popularly supposed to have meant to the typical Pilgrim Father: viz. a very present help in times of trouble, plus a means of keeping out of trouble via harmless, since vicarious, indulgence in the pomps and vanities of this wicked world.Collection: Father
XVII Lady, i will touch you with my mind. Touch you and touch and touch until you give me suddenly a smile,shyly obscene (lady i will touch you with my mind.)Touch you,that is all, lightly and you utterly will become with infinite care the poem which i do not write.Collection: Writing
dive for dreams or a slogan may topple you (trees are their roots and wind is wind) trust your heart if the seas catch fire (and live by love though the stars walk backward) honour the past but welcome the future (and dance your death away at this wedding) never mind a world with its villains or heroes (for god likes girls and tomorrow and the earth)Collection: Girl
Lessons hide in his wrinkles. Bells ding in the oldness of eyes. Did he by, any chance, tell children that there are such monstrous things as peace and goodwill...a corrupter of youth no doubt.Collection: Children
nobody, not even the rain, has such small handsCollection: Rain
when man determined to destroy himself he picked the was of shall and finding only why smashed it into because.Collection: Life
-Before leaving my room i turn, and (stooping through the morning) kiss this pillow, dear where our heads lived and were.Collection: Morning
An artist, a man, a failure, must proceed.Collection: Failure
it's no use trying to pretend that mostpeople and ourselves are alike. Mostpeople have less in common with ourselves than thesquarerootofminusone. You and I are human beings; mostpeople are snobs.Collection: Trying
deeds cannot dream what dreams can doCollection: Love
It may take two people to make a really beautiful mistake.Collection: Beautiful
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is youCollection: Moon
Well, write poetry, for God's sake, it's the only thing that matters.Collection: Writing
Love is a place & through this place of love move (with brightness of peace) all places yes is a world & in this world of yes live (skillfully curled) all worldsCollection: Moving
in the street of the sky night walks scattering poemsCollection: Night
...on forever's very now we stand.Collection: Forever
his lips drink water but his heart drinks wineCollection: Heart
Meanwhile myself et cetera lay quietly in the deep mud et cetera (dreaming, et cetera, of your smile eyes knees and of your Etcetera.)Collection: Dream
Time's a strange fellow; more he gives than takes (and he takes all).Collection: Giving
O sweet spontaneous earth how often have the doting fingers of prurient philosophers pinched and poked thee ,has the naughty thumb of science prodded thy beauty .how often have religions taken thee upon their scraggy knees squeezing and buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive gods (but true to the incomparable couch of death thy rhythmic lover thou answerest them only with spring)Collection: Life
What time is it? It is by every star a different time, and each most falsely true.Collection: Stars
The only man, woman, or child who wrote a simple declarative sentence with seven grammatical errors "is dead."Collection: Cute
love is a deeper season than reason; my sweet oneCollection: Sweet