“somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously) her first rose
or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain, has such small hands ”
e.e. cummings (1894-1962)
My name is Michael Sean Gallagher. I am a Lecturer in Digital Education at the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh. I am Co-Founder and Director of Panoply Digital, a consultancy dedicated to ICT and mobile for development (M4D); we have worked with USAID, GSMA, UN Habitat, Cambridge University and more on education and development projects. I was a researcher on the Near Futures Teaching project, a project that explores how teaching at The University of Edinburgh unfold over the coming decades, as technology, social trends, patterns of mobility, new methods and new media continue to shift what it means to be at university. Previously, I was the Research Associate on the NERC, ESRC, and AHRC Global Challenges Research Fund sponsored GCRF Research for Emergency Aftershock Forecasting (REAR) project. I was an Assistant Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (한국외국어대학교) in Seoul, Korea. I have also completed a doctorate at University College London (formerly the independent Institute of Education, University of London) on mobile learning in the humanities in Korea.
2 thoughts on “e.e. cummings, opening and closing”
E. E. Cumming’s poetry always astounds me with how absolutely delicate and beautiful it is, yet somehow still so solid and sturdy. I recently downloaded an audio version of some of Cummings poems from http://www.audiobooks.net/ and have really enjoyed having them on my ipod
I agree Nikki. It seems so immediate, honest, and measured at the same time. I like your choice of words delicate; it is almost fragile at times. Good observation.
E. E. Cumming’s poetry always astounds me with how absolutely delicate and beautiful it is, yet somehow still so solid and sturdy. I recently downloaded an audio version of some of Cummings poems from http://www.audiobooks.net/ and have really enjoyed having them on my ipod
I agree Nikki. It seems so immediate, honest, and measured at the same time. I like your choice of words delicate; it is almost fragile at times. Good observation.