April - National Poetry Month 2010

I wasn't sure what to do for April. I had no real pre-conceived and established norms to fall back on, until I heard from Matthew Harris that it's National Poetry Month. This is exciting for me b/c I'm sort of a poetry nerd. Most of the poems I like are more modern, but I will throw in a few oldies and goodies, and maybe even some Emily Dickenson and the like (meaning poets of whom I'm not a big fan). So, in the spirit of embracing all poetry, I'm going to kick this off with some e.e. cummings who is generally a poet I don't particularly like, but here is a poem of his that I love:

cummings is known for his break with poetic and grammatical conventions, choosing to extend it even to his own name which he did not capitalize. His free-form poetry, though frustrating to some (including me), really stripped away a lot of conventions and form poets often followed. Grammatical irregularities are his doing, not mine.

i carry your heart with me - ee cummings

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)