E.E. Cummings: making poetry popular culture

a clown's smirk in the skull of a baboon

a clown's smirk in the skull of a baboon (where once good lips stalked or eyes firmly stirred) my mirror gives me,on this afternoon; i am a shape that can but eat and turd ere with the dirt death shall him vastly gird, a coward waiting clumsily to cease whom every perfect thing meanwhile doth miss; a hand's impression in an empty glove, a soon forgotten tune,a house for lease. I have never loved you dear as now i love behold this fool who,in the month of June, having certain stars and planets heard, rose very slowly in a tight balloon until the smallening world became absurd; him did an archer spy(whose aim had erred never)and by that little trick or this he shot the aeronaut down,into the abyss -and wonderfully i fell through the green groove of twilight,striking into many a piece. I have never loved you dear as now i love god's terrible face,brighter than a spoon, collects the image of one fatal word; so that my life(which liked the sun and the moon) resembles something that has not occurred: i am a birdcage without any bird, a collar looking for a dog,a kiss without lips;a prayer lacking any knees but something beats within my shirt to prove he is undead who,living,noone is. I have never loved you dear as now i love. Hell(by most humble me which shall increase) open thy fire!for i have had some bliss of one small lady upon earth above; to whom i cry,remembering her face, i have never loved you dear as now i love

I LOVE THIS POEM!

HUMAN FAMILY

Poem by Dr. Maya Angelou

I note the obvious differences
in the human family.
Some of us are serious,
some thrive on comedy.


Some declare their lives are lived
as true profundity,
and others claim they really live
the real reality.


The variety of our skin tones
can confuse, bemuse, delight,
brown and pink and beige and purple,
tan and blue and white.


I've sailed upon the seven seas
and stopped in every land.
I've seen the wonders of the world,
not yet one common man.


I know ten thousand women
called Jane and Mary Jane,
but I've not seen any two
who really were the same.


Mirror twins are different
although their features jibe,
and lovers think quite different thoughts
while lying side by side.


We love and lose in China,
we weep on England's moors,
and laugh and moan in Guinea,
and thrive on Spanish shores.


We seek success in Finland,
are born and die in Maine.
In minor ways we differ,
in major we're the same.


I note the obvious differences
between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends
than we are unalike.


We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.


We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.