e. e. cummings: "i am a little church"

i am a little church (no great cathedral)
far from the splendor and squalor
of hurrying cities—i do not worry if briefer days grow briefest,
i am not sorry when sun and rain make april

my life is the life of the reaper and the sower;
my prayers are the prayers of earth's own clumsily striving
(finding and losing and laughing and crying) children
whose any sadness or joy is my grief or my gladness

around me surges a miracle of unceasing
birth and glory and death and resurrection:
over my sleeping self float flaming symbols
of hope, and i wake to a perfect patience of mountains

I am a little church (far from the frantic
world with its rapture and anguish) at peace with nature
—i do not worry if longer nights grow longest;
i am not sorry when silence becomes singing

winter by spring, I lift my diminutive spire to
merciful Him Whose only now is forever:
standing erect in the deathless truth of His presence
(welcoming humbly His light and proudly His darkness)



"i am a little church" by e. e. cummings, from E. E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962, edited by George James Firmage. © Liveright, 1994.

Photography credit: "Mountain Shrine, Yakushima, Kagoshima, Japan," by Rob Tilley (originally color).

e. e. cummings: "let it go—the"

let it go—the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise—let it go it
was sworn to

go

let them go—the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers—you must let them go they
were born
to go

let all go—the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things—let all go
dear

so comes love

"let it go" by e. e. cummings, from Complete Poems 1904-1962, edited by George James Firmage. © Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1994.  

Photography credit: Unknown (originally color).

e.e. cummings: "Seeker of Truth"

seeker of truth

follow no path
all paths lead where

truth is here







"Seeker of Truth" by e.e. cummings, from E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems, 1904-1962. © Liveright, 1994.

Photograph credit: Unknown (originally color).