Read the poem
Do your own reflection on it, noting what it inspires in you
Feel free to use your own reflection as your prompt or…
Use the selection of prompts below the poem
Pick one that inspires you and write (feel free to use only one or write several poems using different prompts) or…
Don’t use any of the provided prompts and follow your inspiration from wherever it comes
i thank You God
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitibly earth)
How should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable you?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
e e cimmings
To hear cummings read this poem:
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=e+e+cummings+i+thank+you+god&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Please join in for Round 8 of Writing From The Inside Out by attending the November 2020 read-around sessions on Friday afternoons (it’s free, fun, a great way to share, and reading a poem is optional). If you have not registered, click the button below; and if you have registered, you do not need to register again, simply use the link sent to you in your confirmation email. Register Here:
Next Read Around is November 20, 2020 at 4:00 PM PST
My Thoughts
E.E. Cummings’ unique writing style is universally reacognizable to anyone with even a cursory awareness of western poetry. It also reflects a profound desire to be true to himself while also deeply rooted in spirituality as illustrated in the quote: ”'may I be I is the only prayer—not may I be great or good or beautiful or wise or strong.” His penchant for using lower case letters, even in his own name and with the personal pronoun, “I",” reflects a desire to embrace humility in life and renders those words he does captialize with extraordinary power. His playful use of langauge, violating rules of grammar and syntax, not only give a childlike exuberance to his poetry, but opens the reader to the infinite possibilities that exist outside the box of expected reality.
"i thank You God” is a delightful celebration of life and acknowledgment of the greater mystery into which we are repeatedly reborn. Cummings’ clever use of parenthesis in the second and fourth stanzas create a kind of intimacy, as if you are let in on the narrator’s private thoughts in contrast to the outward focus on the first and third stanzas. This short poem doe a lot of work, covering all senses, the inner and outer worlds, and everything.; What might the ears of your ears hear and the eyes of your eyes see in the world?
Week 32 Prompt Menu
Write a poem of gratitude.
Use Cumming’s opening line, taking on his style, as a prompt: i thank You…
Write from the idea that “everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes."
Write a yes and no poem: to what do you say yes and what no? Or what in the world seems to say yes and what no?
Write a poem about what your senses breathe in from or out to the world.
Imagine you lift something out of the no of all nothing: what shows up?
Use the last stanza as your prompt: when the ears of my ears awakened…. when the eyes of my eyes opened…
Write from whatever else in the poem inspires you or from elsewhere in your life.