Written by: Aram Adler-Smith
What’s to be said about the 20th-century American poet e.e. cummings but something concretely incoherent. His poems are demanding in the sense that they long to be understood, despite the fact that some treat the reader like an untamed dog with identity diffusion. “I will take the sun in my mouth and leap into the ripe air alive with closed eyes to dash against the darkness” e.e. cummings — rephrased: I will read 50 Poems by e.e. cummings.
From the moment I opened 50 Poems by e.e. cummings, an insuppressible adoration began to form. Ever-advancing, enigmatic, absolutely singular, he mapped a portion of my own identity through his writing. It was empathy for me that I discovered in his work — empathy for the dyslexic learner. It has been occasionally speculated that e.e. cummings was (like me) a dyslexic learner. He possessed visible challenges with spelling, grammar, and handwriting throughout his educational and professional careers, and, whether conscious or not, he turned these pangs — typical of dyslexia — into an innovative poetic practice. Dyslexia is not illiteracy, but rather a variable difficulty with word recognition, decoding, and spelling. For e.e. cummings, it was an opportunity to obliterate the oppression of “proper” syntax, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and the conceptual meanings of words.
reposed with a cigarette. His temple required a rub.
The poems he was able to create — likely because of his learner profile — disengaged from meaning entirely, bridged artistic forms through visually evocative typography and structure, and controlled the reader by insisting they employ an effort while reading much greater than they have ever had to before. In this way, e.e. cummings not only honors and artistically amplifies the struggles of dyslexic learners, but forces them upon his readership as well. Insofar as he wants you to struggle with word recognition, decoding, and spelling, e.e. cummings is a distributor, shining out from within the opaque, immovable slop of linguistic normativity, of genuine empathy for the dyslexic experience. For this, I will always be grateful to him.
I encourage the reader to experiment, to work like a dyslexic learner and find the beauty in e.e. cummings’ poem “l(a,” published in 1958:
l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness
— e.e. cummings
Now, the reader might continue this experiment by examining the miraculous “errors” in e.e. cummings’ poem “love is more thicker than forget,” published in 1939.
love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail
it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea
love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive
it is most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky
— e.e. cummings
Featured Image Caption: Edward Estlin Cummings (1894 – 1962) stands with playful poise. This portrait was featured as the cover of his biography, E.E. Cummings: A Life by Susan Cheever (2014).
