e. e. cummings was a poet who loved playing with language and its rules. We see this where he makes up words and excludes capitalization except for two words.
Poetry allows me to explore the world in new ways such as watching for the leaping greenly of trees and all those things which are yes. It is in the cracks that appear in poetry that light shines through.
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 illimitably 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)
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About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope and its anticipatory relationship with the future, and hope as an essential element in learning.
Teacher as Transformer 
e.e. cumming and this poem touch at the heart of lives. Thank you!
You are welcome.
This is one of my all time favorite poems! I’ll be using it soon in one of my posts. Blessings, Natalie 🙂
Thank you so much Ivon, for sharing this piece of art in its entirety as I have only read excerpts. I really do need to buy some e.e. cummings and sit with it and learn more. This is incredible! Blessings, Gina
You are welcome Gina.
Ivan, we seem to share similar tastes in poetry. ee cummings is one of my very favorite poets…when I got married 10 years ago we used his poem “I carry your heart” as our wedding vows. When I was in college, many years ago, we had the poem you used in this post and also “You Shall Above All Things Be Glad and Young” painted on the walls of our apartment in Boston. Those were the days…… and these are too!
Peace and love,
Jan
Thank you for a wonderful comment Jan. I used his poetry in the classroom regularly. I always pointed out the unconventional ways he wrote and his lack of grammar, punctuation, and how he made up words. It helped writers who sometimes struggled with prose an avenue of expression.