Memorized Poems

(Since blogger sucks, i'll insert .... where spaces would normally appear)

in Just-
spring.......when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles.....far.....and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far........and.........wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's
spring
and
..........the
.....................goat-footed

balloonMan........whistles
far
and
wee

-e.e. cummings


How appropriate. it smells like spring outside. i can't wait for warmer weather... but i like it now... tis a grand soft day outside. hmmmm spring and fall are my favorite times of the year. I had to steal a text book from vicki's office to find the right spacing... i love to read this one aloud.

while combing through the book, i also found this one by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

[I Will Put Chaos into Fourteen Lines}

I will put Chaos into fourteen lines
And keep him there; and let him thence escape
If he be lucky; let him twist, and ape
Flood, fire, and demon--his adroit designs
Will strain to nothing in the strict confines
Of this sweet Order, where, in pious rape,
I hold his essence and amorphous shape,
till he with Order mingles and combines.
Past are the hours, they years, of our duress,
His arrogance, our awful servitude:
I have him. He is nothing more nor less
Than something simple not yet understood;
I shall not even force him to confess;
Or answer. I will only make him good.


I like that one. i brings to mind the ardent task that we writers claim as our art. complicated chaos that must be mastered and made into good. i like the personification.

not sure which one i'll perform for class, but it's a start.