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i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
e. e. cummings (1894-1962) was a playwright, painter, and poet, known mostly as the latter. He was raised in a liberal family, his father a Harvard professor and Unitarian minister. He began writing poetry as a young child. Cummings’ poems are marked by unconventional syntax, grammar, and punctuation. He received numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Bollingen Prize, and guest lectureship at Harvard.
