Comments on: I Met E.E. Cummings http://mizdemeanor.net/2009/09/27/i-carry-your-heart-cummings/ Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” Wed, 04 Apr 2012 04:29:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: macroshift http://mizdemeanor.net/2009/09/27/i-carry-your-heart-cummings/comment-page-1/#comment-649 macroshift Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:29:32 +0000 http://mizdemeanor.net/?p=2261#comment-649 Thanks Mizdi, I appreciate your reply and for your connecting with me on Blip.fm and Twitter. You can find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/macroshift On the matter of the mashup, the purists have valid points, though I think that through your exercise to make the poem more approachable you make it your own -- a good and mature process with things we value/adopt/adapt into our lives. My only advice would be to add a brief disclaimer for the reader that the structure has been altered from the original, so that when someone encounters your version of the poem on the net, they know it is different than the original version. I also encourage you to examine cummings' style and write another poem in keeping with these traits. A fun exercise I have repeated for many years. Namaste, macroshift ------ Another favorite poem of cummings, among others, for me is "anyone lived in a pretty how town" http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15403 First stanza: (cummings' poems have no names so the poems are titled by their first lines.) anyone lived in a pretty how town (with up so floating many bells down) spring summer autumn winter he sang his didn't he danced his did .-= macroshift´s last blog ..<a href="http://blip.fm/profile/macroshift/blip/34439850/Tom+Waits “Road+To+Peace" rel="nofollow">Tom Waits “ Road To Peace</a> =-. Thanks Mizdi,

I appreciate your reply and for your connecting with me on Blip.fm and Twitter. You can find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/macroshift

On the matter of the mashup, the purists have valid points, though I think that through your exercise to make the poem more approachable you make it your own — a good and mature process with things we value/adopt/adapt into our lives.

My only advice would be to add a brief disclaimer for the reader that the structure has been altered from the original, so that when someone encounters your version of the poem on the net, they know it is different than the original version.

I also encourage you to examine cummings’ style and write another poem in keeping with these traits. A fun exercise I have repeated for many years.

Namaste,

macroshift

——

Another favorite poem of cummings, among others, for me is “anyone lived in a pretty how town” http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15403

First stanza: (cummings’ poems have no names so the poems are titled by their first lines.)

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn’t he danced his did
.-= macroshift´s last blog ..Tom Waits “ Road To Peace =-.

]]> By: mizdi http://mizdemeanor.net/2009/09/27/i-carry-your-heart-cummings/comment-page-1/#comment-648 mizdi Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:58:30 +0000 http://mizdemeanor.net/?p=2261#comment-648 hello macroshift, my...oh my, that was impressive! you really surprised me with that comment. i could almost feel your excitement as you poured out your fascination for e.e. cummings and the love that you have for his works. when i finally found a copy of this poem, it had easily became one of my favorites. i had fallen for his lines and the meaning the whole poem conveyed but yes, i had to "mash it up" (which i hope wouldn't make e.e cummings turn in his grave), not because of anything else, but if only to make the poem easier to understand. thank you very much for appreciating my mashed-up version just the same. Coming from someone who is obviously very knowledgeable of this wonderful poet truly humbles me and yet makes me proud. it was a beautiful feeling to have met you thru this poet/poem extraordinaire. thanks again, u made my day. mizdi hello macroshift,

my…oh my, that was impressive! you really surprised me with that comment. i could almost feel your excitement as you poured out your fascination for e.e. cummings and the love that you have for his works.

when i finally found a copy of this poem, it had easily became one of my favorites. i had fallen for his lines and the meaning the whole poem conveyed but yes, i had to “mash it up” (which i hope wouldn’t make e.e cummings turn in his grave), not because of anything else, but if only to make the poem easier to understand.

thank you very much for appreciating my mashed-up version just the same. Coming from someone who is obviously very knowledgeable of this wonderful poet truly humbles me and yet makes me proud.

it was a beautiful feeling to have met you thru this poet/poem extraordinaire.

thanks again, u made my day.

mizdi

]]> By: macroshift http://mizdemeanor.net/2009/09/27/i-carry-your-heart-cummings/comment-page-1/#comment-647 macroshift Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:46:04 +0000 http://mizdemeanor.net/?p=2261#comment-647 Mizdi, what a wonderful discovery, this page of yours here. e. e. cummings has inspired me in many deep and lifelong ways, more so than most anyone, as he has obviously inspired you now. I have many of his books of poetry and several of his biographies in my library. Most fascinating was learning more about his logic of form and syntaxes. He crafted his own poetic language inside of his English. His volumes of poetry still stand apart from most other poets. To Sarah's point, e. e.'s work is novel for his structural twists/syntax in conveying his sentiments. That said, your mashup of his poetry to your own interpretive worth makes your version of his poems uniquely yours and interesting to read comparatively. His poetry is difficult to read aloud for most people, including me. To get a sense of how he recites them, his cadence and stall, you can listen to him read one of his poems, recorded in 1953 I believe: http://www.randomhouse.com/audio/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780739315378 .-= macroshift´s last blog ..<a href="http://blip.fm/profile/macroshift/blip/34439850/Tom+Waits–Road+To+Peace" rel="nofollow">Tom Waits – Road To Peace</a> =-. Mizdi, what a wonderful discovery, this page of yours here. e. e. cummings has inspired me in many deep and lifelong ways, more so than most anyone, as he has obviously inspired you now. I have many of his books of poetry and several of his biographies in my library. Most fascinating was learning more about his logic of form and syntaxes. He crafted his own poetic language inside of his English. His volumes of poetry still stand apart from most other poets. To Sarah’s point, e. e.’s work is novel for his structural twists/syntax in conveying his sentiments. That said, your mashup of his poetry to your own interpretive worth makes your version of his poems uniquely yours and interesting to read comparatively. His poetry is difficult to read aloud for most people, including me. To get a sense of how he recites them, his cadence and stall, you can listen to him read one of his poems, recorded in 1953 I believe: http://www.randomhouse.com/audio/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780739315378
.-= macroshift´s last blog ..Tom Waits – Road To Peace =-.

]]> By: mizdi http://mizdemeanor.net/2009/09/27/i-carry-your-heart-cummings/comment-page-1/#comment-526 mizdi Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:13:19 +0000 http://mizdemeanor.net/?p=2261#comment-526 Thanks Sarah, I had been alerted to that. However, i refuse to acknowledge what you are saying that I missed the important part of his poetry which is its form ...and MANGLED his poem. I assure you, I have seen it and read it, in its original form with all its parentheses and uneven syntaxes... and my rearrangement was intentional coz that's how i prefer it read. As I see it the message was clearer ... and I followed my artistic instincts and was satisfied that my rearrangement best fitted those frames I had made especially for the lines in this poem. Thank you for visiting. :) Thanks Sarah, I had been alerted to that. However, i refuse to acknowledge what you are saying that I missed the important part of his poetry which is its form …and MANGLED his poem. I assure you, I have seen it and read it, in its original form with all its parentheses and uneven syntaxes… and my rearrangement was intentional coz that’s how i prefer it read.
As I see it the message was clearer … and I followed my artistic instincts and was satisfied that my rearrangement best fitted those frames I had made especially for the lines in this poem.
Thank you for visiting. :)

]]> By: mizdi http://mizdemeanor.net/2009/09/27/i-carry-your-heart-cummings/comment-page-1/#comment-525 mizdi Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:49:01 +0000 http://mizdemeanor.net/?p=2261#comment-525 Thank you Marc, for calling my attention to that. I stand corrected. I first heard of this poem when i watched "In Her Shoes" on DVD months ago. I just remembered i liked the message it conveyed and the way Cameron Diaz read it. That line ... "I carry your heart in my heart.... " stuck .... When i wrote my poem, this poem came to mind and i thought it would be nice to have them combined. I Googled " C.C. Cumming I carry your heart" coz i can't remember what's the double-letter before Cummings... I found the Poem.... and the Cummings.. but I had overlooked the E.E. and mistakenly assumed its C.C. coz i found the poem anyway. My mistake.... and my apologies to E.E Cummings (God bless his soul!). Thank you Marc, for calling my attention to that. I stand corrected. I first heard of this poem when i watched “In Her Shoes” on DVD months ago. I just remembered i liked the message it conveyed and the way Cameron Diaz read it. That line … “I carry your heart in my heart…. ” stuck …. When i wrote my poem, this poem came to mind and i thought it would be nice to have them combined. I Googled ” C.C. Cumming I carry your heart” coz i can’t remember what’s the double-letter before Cummings… I found the Poem…. and the Cummings.. but I had overlooked the E.E. and mistakenly assumed its C.C. coz i found the poem anyway. My mistake…. and my apologies to E.E Cummings (God bless his soul!).

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