e.e. cummings, from introduction to collected poems
the angsty, simplistic opposition between “ourselves” and “mostpeople” here—as well as the embodiment of that philosophy in cummings’s overall style—was what drew me to his work in high school. for me, reading cummings was a natural next step after listening to deathcore and screamo. i love this about cummings: for all his linguistic experimentation and attentiveness to “craft,” he used it to embody a worldview and feelings that are very basic and relatable. like a medical doctor, he used his in-depth knowledge of his trade to provide a service for common people: his poems were advertisements (anthems, even) for playfulness and nonconformism, for being in love and apreciating the natural world, for aliveness. cummings’s typography wasn’t an intelectual exercise or somthing, it was an embodiment of his message, and a necesary consequence of taking his own message seriously
