Monday, October 14, 2024

Kisses are a Better Fate Than Wisdom

It's the birthday of E. E. Cummings today. I wouldn't normally know that, but The Writer's Almanac for today said so. The first four lines of one of his poems were shared, and I found them so moving, so descriptive of my marriage, that I wanted to read the poem in its entirety. I have shared it below. When I realized my husband cared more about whether my grammar was correct than what I was attempting to express, I knew something was very wrong.


[since feeling is first]


since feeling is first

who pays any attention

to the syntax of things

will never wholly kiss you;


wholly to be a fool

while Spring is in the world


my blood approves,

and kisses are a better fate

than wisdom

lady I swear by all flowers. Don't cry

--the best gesture of my brain is less than

your eyelids' flutter which says


we are for each other: then

laugh, leaning back in my arms

for life's not a paragraph


And death i think is no parenthesis


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