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# may my heart always be open to
- URL: https://poetry101.love/may-my-heart-always-be-open-to/
- Published: 2022-12-29T01:04:55.000Z
- Updated: 2022-12-29T01:24:09.000Z
- Description: by e.e. cummings
- Author: Melissa Anderson
- Tags: e.e. cummings, Hearts, #Import 2026-11-04 19:11

may my heart always be open to little  
birds who are the secrets of living  
whatever they sing is better than to know  
and if men should not hear them men are old  
  
may my mind stroll about hungry  
and fearless and thirsty and supple  
and even if it’s sunday may i be wrong  
for whenever men are right they are not young  
  
and may myself do nothing usefully  
and love yourself so more than truly  
there’s never been quite such a fool who could fail  
pulling all the sky over him with one smile

Cummings, E. E.. [Selected poems](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Selected%5FPoems/9brwAAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0&kptab=getbook&ref=poetry101.love). New York, Liveright, 1994.

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### Why I chose this poem

Been thinking a lot lately about the ideas of being right and knowing facts, and, after reading Stephen Jenkinson, how knowing stands in opposition to learning ... that asks us to part with what we once held true, so that "whenever men are right they are not young" sparkles differently. Whenever I read cummings, something in me is always stretched thin between complete rebellion at the narrowness of his picture of his reader and the glimpses of beauty he offers.