E. E. Cummings citations

Page 5

“hate blows a bubble of despair into
hugeness world system universe and bang
-fear buries a tomorrow under woe
and up comes yesterday most green and young”

“what time is it? its is by every star
a different time, and each most falsely true…”

“the poems to come are for you and for me and are not for mostpeople… you and i are human beings; mostpeople are snobs.”

“By the way, a gendarme assured me this is not a prison.”

“We doctors know a hopeless case if — listen: there's a hell
of a good universe next door; let's go”

“(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”

“exists no miracle mightier than this:to feel”

“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”

“somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond”

“As small as a world as large as alone.”

“Awake, chaos:we have napped.”

“Before leaving my room
i turn, and (stooping
through the morning) kiss
this pillow, dear
where our heads lived and were.”

“things which in my mind blossom will
stumble beneath a clumsiest disguise appear
capable of fragility and indecision”

“a politician is an arse upon
which everyone has sat except a man”

“dreamtree, truthtree tree of jubilee:with aeons of (trivial merely)existence, all when may not measure a now of your treasure”

“concerning this selfstyled world's greatest and most generous literary figure: who had just arrived in our nation's capitol, attired in half a GI uniform and ready to be hanged as a traitor by the only country which ever made even a pretense of fighting for freedom of speech
Re Ezra Pound — poetry happens to be an art; and artists happen to be human beings.”

“All in green went my love riding
on a great horse of gold
into the silver dawn.”

“There are still a few erect human beings in the socalled world. Proudly and humbly, I say to these human beings:
"O my fellow citizens, many an honest man believes a lie. Though you are as honest as the day, fear and hate the liar. Fear and hate him when he should be feared and hated:now. Fear and hate him were he should be feared and hated:in yourselves.
"Do not hate and fear the artist in yourselves, my fellow citizens. Honour him and love him. Love him truly— do not try to possess him. Trust him as nobly as you trust tomorrow.
"Only the artist in yourselves is more truthful than the night."”

“it's so damn sweet when Anybody—
…makes you feel
…for once
(imag
-ine) You”

“it's love by whom (my beautiful friend) the gift to live is without until:
…love was and shall be this only truth (a dream of a deed, born not to die)”

“If you're a twofisted, spineless progressive (a mighty fashionable stance nowadays) Offissa Pupp, who forcefully asserts the will of socalled society, becomes a cosmic angel; while Ignatz Mouse, who forcefully defies society's socalled will by asserting his authentic own, becomes a demon of anarchy and a fiend of chaos. But if—whisper it—you're a 100% hidebound reactionary, the foot's in the other shoe. Ignatz Mouse then stands forth as a hero, pluckily struggling to keep the flag of free will flying; while Offissa Pupp assumes the monstrous mien of a Goliath, satanically bullying a tiny but indomitable David. Well, let's flip the coin—so: and lo! Offissa Pupp comes up. That makes Ignatz Mouse "tails."”

“plato told
him:he couldn't
believe it(jesus told him; he
wouldn't believe
itlao tsze
certainly told
him, and general
(yes mam)
sherman;
and even
(believe it
or not)you
told him:i told
him; we told him”

“seeming's enough for slaves of space and time
—ours is the now and here of freedom. Come”

“the great my darling happens to be
that love are in we, that love are in we”

“on forever's very now we stand”

“The whole truth…
sings only —and all lovers are the song”

“Mostpeople have been heard
screaming for international
measures that render hell rational —i thank heaven somebody's crazy
enough to give me a daisy”

“blossoming are people…
all the earth has turned to sky
…and i am you are i am we”

“Time's a strange fellow;
more he gives than takes
(and he takes all)”