winterbadger: (tulips)
winterbadger ([personal profile] winterbadger) wrote2010-05-03 12:11 pm
Entry tags:

30 Poems: Number 5

In honour of (at least here in DC) the late lamented Sping, I selected a poem from e. e. cummings





In Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's
spring
and
the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee


I think cummings does a wonderful job of conveying the splashy, free, breezy excitement that comes with the clean, warmandyetcool winds of the season that sweep away the frowstiness of winter and blow through daffodils and new green grass. Pan, tootling away, heralds a new year's growing with bright-coloured floating marvels.

Dad, when he was older than I am now, *had* to go back to grad school and get an MEd. It was a state education requirement, I think in order to retain his department head status. He did it over several summers, spending them in North Carolina at Duke University. I remember him relating that one of the projects he was assigned was to shoot a short film of a poem, for which he chose this one. I love to think of him skipping about as the little goat-footed balloon man. :-)

ETA: I'm reminded that Richard Shindell wrote and recorded this lovely song, also about a balloon man. I think it was one of the songs [livejournal.com profile] redactrice and I saw him play in concert at the Vergennes Opera House.

[identity profile] schizokitty.livejournal.com 2010-05-04 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
I love e.e. cummings; this poem is one of my favourites of his.