unusual topography the creative use of capitalization and punctuation to bring forth feelings of ambiguity he invented that)
For modern eyes, obsessed with perfection, with dotting every i and crossing each t, with a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence and one punctuation symbol at the end, perhaps is hard for us to understand cumming's brilliance. Some of us cast him aside, another poet lost in Paris, lost in our history, to avant garde for his time and for ours. But in doing so, we overlook a man whose creativity rivals anyone and everyones. A man who was not just a poet.
A man who was (a genius)
cummings was a painter, though many today only recognize him for his poetry. Influenced and inspired by Picasso, who he met while in France, cummings painted self portraits, and other surrealistic works.
Self-portrait with sketchpad, 1939, oil on canvas.
Noise Number 1, 1919, oil on canvas.
Read more about Picasso and cummings here.
cummings was influenced so much by Picasso that he wrote a poem entitled "Picasso" :
Picasso
you make us shrillpresents alwaysshut in the sumptuous screech ofsimplicity
(out of theblack unbungedSomething gushes vaguely a squeak of planesor
between squeals ofNothing grabbed with circular shrieking tightnesssolid screams whispers.)Lumberman of the Distinct
your brain'saxe only chops hugest inherentTrees of Ego,fromwhose living and biggest
bodies loppedof everyprettiness
you hew form truly
cummings' use of unusual typography is evident in his use of parenthesis and selective capitalization and his poem honors Picasso and Picasso's work.
It's important that we search beyond the surface, that we try to learn more, try to contextualize what we know. Learning that cummings was a painter is so very important for understanding him as a person. And understanding who cummings was helps us understand his poetry.
cummings (never ceases to amaze)
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