I'll "leaf" the puns to the poets

I remember going outside on long autumn nights growing up (I say growing up but I guess it was just a few years ago). My family lived across the street then and we had one of those trees in the front yard that dropped those helicopter leaves. You know the ones I mean? They have a round seed body and a stiff propeller that comes out of one side, almost like the sail of a ship strung from its steady mast.

There was something profound in the way these seeds drifted to the ground. Quietly, often unobserved, they'd meander gently through the air before resting on the ground. There was no protest in their movement; how could there be? Just a soft floating and complacence.

It's that quietness and complacence I think about when I read this, our second e.e. cummings poem. In my experience this piece has been pretty consistent with most of his other work, and in that spirit, this poem is also untitled.


l(a

le
af
fa

ll

s)
one
l

iness


P.S. Mads were awesome tonight! It was... well.. even invigorating! very good!

"cumming" over?

Lately I've been reading a lot of e.e. cummings. I figure if I'm going to understand tough poetry I might as well start with the toughest, right?

Anyway! Turns out I actually enjoy his stuff a lot! Though maybe a little unorthodox (think Picasso, only with words), his poetry has a lot to offer to those who are willing to go out on a limb and put in a little effort.

Here's a piece I particularly liked. It's untitled.


who are you,little i

(five or six years old)
peering from some high

window;at the gold



of november sunset

(and feeling:that if day
has to become night

this is a beautiful way)



cummings loved to play with the visual appearance of his poems and use punctuation in ways... well, frankly in ways it wasn't meant to be used (not to mention capitalization, case in point: "e.e. cummings").

Anyway, inspired by his use (or misuse) of grammar and words, I've started this little game.

Here's how it goes, take the letters in your first, middle and last names, then put them together to create a poem using only those letters. You can use whatever title you want and punctuation is totally fair game.

Here's mine. It's called, "Leaving."

Tak-tap-TiCk, r E (bl(Is)s) V!!
en.

Weird, huh? First one to figure it out wins a prize!