Poetry Thursday - as freedom is a breakfastfood by e e cummings

selected poems 1923-1958 "...made by the author from eleven booskofpoems"

as freedom is a breakfastfood

or truth can live with right and wrong

or molehills are from mountains made

—long enough and just so long

will being pay the rent of seem

and genius please the talentgang

and water most encourage flame

as hatracks into peachtrees grow

or hopes dance best on bald men’s hair

and every finger is a toe

and any courage is a fear

—long enough and just so long

will the impure think all things pure

and hornets wail by children stung

or as the seeing are the blind

and robins never welcome spring

nor flatfolk prove their world is round

nor dingsters die at break of dong

and common’s rare and millstones float

—long enough and just so long

tomorrow will not be too late

worms are the words but joy’s the voice

down shall go which and up come who

breasts will be breasts thighs will be thighs

deeds cannot dream what dreams can do 

—time is a tree(this life one leaf)

but love is the sky and i am for you

just so long and long enough

- e e cummings (via)

Cummings (1894-1962) wrote so many interesting poems - interesting, I think, because of his linguistic trickery. Tricks like juxtaposed words to make new ones, esoteric (if that's the right word) punctuation, grammatical innovation (eg, using "which" and "who" as nouns), eye-catching spatial organisation, and of course his trademark lack of capital letters. I wonder whether he would have had interesting conversation with Noah Webster, the author of the dictionary (published 1828) that solidified American spelling, and Melvil Dewey of the decimal system of library organisation (published 1876), who was an advocate of even more radical spelling reform. Perhaps they all would have come to blows! 

from p.43

As is, or was, conventional for poetry books, there is an index of first lines, which acts as an alphabetical table of contents, as very few poems have separate titles.