dive for dreams
or a slogan may topple you
(trees are there roots
and wind is wind)
trust your heart
if the seas catch fire
(and live by love
though the stars walk backward)
honour the past
but welcome the future
(and dance your death
away at the wedding)
never mind a world
with its villains or heroes
(for good likes girls
and tomorrow and the earth)
in spite of everything
which breathes and moves, since Doom
(with white longest hands
neating each crease)
will smooth entirely our minds
-before leaving my room
i turn, and (stooping
through the morning) kiss
this pillow, dear
where our heads lived and were.
silently if, out of not knowable
silently if, out of not knowable
night's utmost nothing, wanders a little guess
(only which is this world) more my life does
not leap than with the mystery your smile
sings or if (spiraling as luminous
they climb oblivion) voices who are dreams,
less into heaven certainly earth swims
than each my deeper death becomes your kiss
losing through you what seemed myself, i find
selves unimaginably mine;beyond
sorrow's own joys and hoping's very fears
yours is the light by which my spirit's born:
yours is the darkness of my soul's return
-you are my sun,my moon,and all my stars
Good poem. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteSorry to be incredibly nit-picky, but I'm a librarian and a huge e.e. cummings fan and I can't help myself sometimes ;)
ReplyDeleteThe above is not the poem, "dive into dreams". The first line through the line "(for god likes girls/and tomorrow and the earth)" {and it's "god", by the way, not "good"} -- that is the poem, "dive into dreams". The lines, "in spite of everything" through, "where our heads lived and were" constitute another e.e. cummings poem, "in spite of everything" from the book "is5". The rest of the above lines are from yet another e.e. cummings poem, "silently if, out of not knowable," from the book, "73 Poems."
Also, you mis-typed "there" in the third line, it should be "their".
The copyright page for the book "Charlie St. Cloud" indicates that the author took the poem from cummings' "Complete Works" and indeed it does appear there in the form I've indicated here. I'm not sure, since I haven't read "Charlie St. Cloud", if what is quoted above is the way it was found in the book or elsewhere on the internet, but in any event it's just not correct...
Despite all that, thanks for posting this. I'm a fan of all three poems and am glad to see cummings still getting a nod out there now and again.
Thank you so much!! I have found all these poems crammed together and I have been so confused!! This clears things up so much!! I love E.E. Cummings :-) Thanks again
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