I have always been partial to e.e. cummings although I know he tends to engender either shining adoration or pure-black hatred in people. It seems to me that his poems express joy better than nearly anyones. Joy in living, joy in love, joy in language. I bet he bounced in his seat when he finished writing one. I sometimes bounce in my seat when I finish reading one. Like this one, for example. 🙂
you shall above all things be glad and young
by e.e. cummings
you shall above all things be glad and young
For if you’re young, whatever life you wear
it will become you; and if you are glad
whatever’s living will yourself become.
Girlboys may nothing more than boygirls need:
i can entirely her only love
whose any mystery makes every man’s
flesh put space on; and his mind take off time
that you should ever think, may god forbid
and (in his mercy) your true lover spare:
for that way knowledge lies, the foetal grave
called progress,and negation’s dead undoom.
I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
More great poetry is over here at Poetry Thursday