since feeling is first

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don’t cry
– the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids’ flutter which says

we are for each other; then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life’s not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

Cummings, Edward Estlin, and Firmage, George James. Is 5. United Kingdom, Liveright, 1985.

Why I Chose this Poem

I learned the poem for a class when I was working toward a teaching certificate. I bought a dress with poofy sleeves and cabbage roses in which to recite it. My proposed teaching unit was "Artists Responding to Art with Art" and I wrote a poem in response to this, wherein I learned about the edge I have, where I think I love something, but there's also anger.

I wrote it the night before the unit was due. I don't believe I have the poem any longer. I don't remember most of it, but I do remember the part where I discovered my anger.

The best gusture of your brain
is indeed less than my eyelid's
flutter, which says
it's a feeble gesture.