"since feeling is first" by e.e. cummings

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
--e.e. cummings


Death is no parenthesis. It's not the end of the thought, or the sentence, and definitely not the poem.

e.e. cummings is the poet that brought me the most grief as a high school student, because his style is irresistible to imitators, and I edited the literary journal in high school. I blame cummings personally for the many, many unfortunate poems I was forced to read.  However, he's amazing. He's transcendent. cummings is easily one of my very favorite poets: he's as visceral and arresting as Catullus. I have only barely started with cummings - I need to read more of him, preferably systematically, in color, with music, with thought. I don't like that style but I love what he does - he may or may not have been the first, but he may well be the only.