Tuesday's Poem: e.e. cummings

The Moon Looked Into My Window

The moon looked into my window 
it touched me with its small hands 
and with curling infantile 
fingers it understood my eyes cheeks mouth 
it's hands (slipping) felt of my necktie wandered 
against my shirt and into my body the 
sharp things fingered tinily my heart life 
 
the little hands with drew, jerkily, themselves 
 
quietly they began playing with a button 
the moon smiled she 
let go my vest and crept 
through the window 
she did not fall 
she went creeping along the air 
 
                         over houses 
                                            roofs 
and out of the east toward 
her a fragile light bent gatheringly 






e.e. cummings. Is 5. New York: Liveright, 1985.

Photograph by Edward Weston Center for Creative Photography, Arizona

Edward Estlin Cummings (1894–1962) helped bring about the 20th century revolution in literary expression. Along with misfits like Pound, Eliot, and  Bukowski, this Harvard poet would greatly influence my writing style.

"As one of the most innovative poets of his time, Cummings experimented with poetic form and language to create a distinct personal style. A typical Cummings poem is spare and precise, employing a few key words eccentrically placed on the page. Some of these words were invented by Cummings, often by combining two common words into a new synthesis. He also revised grammatical and linguistic rules to suit his own purposes, using such words as “if,” “am,” and “because” as nouns, for example, or assigning his own private meanings to words." 
(excerpt from Poetry Foundation)