from Chansons Innocentes
I
in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame baloonman
whistles far and wee
and eddyandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
old baloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it's
spring
and
the
goat-footed
baloonMan whistles
far
and
wee
~~
E.E. Cummings (1894-1962), 1920
from The Dial, May 1920
[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the United States]
E.E. Cummings biography
"In just-spring" read by E.E. Cummings. Courtesy sufanxphile.
I've been waiting to blog this one. Cummings died in 1962, meaning that his poetry went into the public domain in Canada this past January, so I've been looking forward to addding him to the other poets represented there this year; but I wanted to start with "In Just-spring," which is one of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteE. E. Cummings... I've always told myself, "Gave me permission not to use punctuation and capital letters." This was freeing. I've since learnt there are ways to simulate punctuation, for instance, the pause at the end of a line happens without a comma... or sometimes I use a '...'. But I'm still learning. And doin' my own thang. I love the video George Dance, I'd love to try this one day. Cathleen Harvea
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