somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose
or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond by e. e. cummings
There is something so magical about the poetry of e.e. cummings. The romanticism, lyricism and playfulness of his words are so charming. I first got exposed to poetry in high school, but never studied Cummings unfortunately. I was mostly enchanted by T.S. Eliot and Dylan Thomas. When I discovered e.e. cummings in Hannah and Her Sisters years ago, I knew his words will change my life forever. If only I understood how to construct poetry properly, I'd make my words dance off the page. I don't dabble in writing poetry, but I like to be inspired by different types of poetry.
I recently got into Chinese poetry and I never knew I'd understand it. Granted, I can't read Chinese all that well, but with the assistance of my godmother who was visiting, she introduced me to a few Chinese poets from the Tang and Song Dynasty. We're talking hundreds and hundreds of years ago, these romantic men were looking up at the moon and writing about her long lost loves. How moving is that? They would write about yearning and desire. These are themes that we all understand. I really hope to learn Chinese and hopefully be able to read these poems.
I know why Elliot gives this poem to Lee in the film. There is so much power and weakness in these words, that you can't help but feel weak in the knees. How can someone love another with all their being? I love his unabashed use of punctuation and wordplay. There is so much depth and layers to his words. I have to unravel the meaning of each line and with every discovery, there is genius behind the craft of every single chosen word.
I may not feel such an intense power and attraction to another human, but I wholly feel immensely in awe of life and its wonders. You don't need romance to appreciate life, just a little gratitude and appreciation is enough for me to know life is worth living.
With every single step I take in life,
I discover more and more beauty.
Anywhere and everywhere.