Writing Advice from E.E. Cummings
E.E. Cummings’ style was born from the telling of a joke in 1920. A vaudeville man said, “Would you hit a lady with a baby?” To which the other man replied, “No, I’d hit her with a brick.” Despite the crude sense of humor, I hope that my poetry packs the punch of a bag of bricks. Sometimes it does. Other days, I’m sure it feels like the gentle caress of the wind– or oftentimes my writing feels like nothing at all. I, like E.E. Cummings, have sought to find my own way.
Cummings utilized a more modern style of writing. He included very specific line breaks, parenthesis, and lowercase lettering. I admire the imagery that is created through the choppiness of his words and how the structure can also evoke feeling. While taking college courses I was pushed into a box as an English major. Cummings’ originality made him a trailblazer for others looking to break standard rules for writing and push down barriers.
This is one of the main reasons I selected him as a poet to receive advice from– due to being self-published for a majority of his career, but also how his style and voice have made his writing accessible to readers. It would seem he certainly did not care whether or not his writing was perceived to be like any of the great poets of his time. Cummings has a strong sense of self and voice. It’s something I am actively working on and hope to achieve.
I think it is valuable to look at poets from the past, and present, and those that are up and coming for inspiration. We can learn much from one another because poetry is raw emotion– a way to communicate how you feel and touch someone deeply, to move others.
“A poet is somebody who feels and expresses his feelings through words. This may sound easy, it isn’t.”
A lot of people think or believe or know or feel, but that’s thinking or believing, or knowing– not feeling. And poetry is feeling– not knowing, or believing, or thinking. Almost anyone can learn to think properly or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel, why? Because whatever you think or you believe or you know you’re a lot of other people– but the moment you feel, you're nobody but yourself.
To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.
As for expressing nobody but yourself in words, that means working just a little harder than anybody who isn't a poet can possibly imagine, why? Because nothing is quite as easy as using words like somebody else.
We, all of us, do exactly this nearly all of the time, and whenever we do it, we are not poets.
If at the end of your first ten or fifteen years of fighting and working and feeling you find you write one line or poem you live very lucky indeed. And so my advice to all young people who wish to become poets is to do something easy like learning to blow up the world and 'les you’re not only willing but glad to feel and work and fight 'til you die.
“Does this sound dismal? It isn’t. It’s the most wonderful life on Earth, or so I feel.”
In researching E.E. Cummings and feeling more about this quote, I feel it is easy to have thoughts or opinions on a matter. People shy away from the emotion of it all. Feelings are valid. Feelings are facts. And poetry, in all its glory is fact–is truth. I agree, the moment you begin to feel, you are nobody but yourself–meaning, no one can feel exactly as you do.
My interpretation of what E.E. Cummings has said: Poetry is, to its core, an expression of feeling. The way you feel is unique and unlike how anyone else feels, so when you put words to a page, be vulnerable and share yourself with others. We don’t need another William Shakespeare, Lord Byron, or Bronte sister– we need you.
We need you and your experience, diversity in voices, and fresh perspective. If Cummings’ advice is sound, feeling accomplished in this line of work is only a line away from being your authentic self and putting who you are– more important, how you feel on the page. Write that line, submit that poem, and put yourself out there.
Take a moment to answer the following:
What makes my voice authentic?
How do I hide in my writing?
Am I being vulnerable? Or is everything surface level?
How do I show rather than tell?
As I said, we need your voice and experience on the page. As an audience, we want the good, bad, and ugly. Allow us to be part of it all and write that one line–even if it takes your whole life. Write it out. Some have written less.
