Welcome back to the daily poem here on the Close Reeds Podcast Network.

Today's poem is by Edward Estlin Cummings, also known as E.E. Cummings, typically without any

capital letters. He lived from 1894 to 1962. It is said that he wrote approximately 2,900 poems, which is, that's an insane number

that I can't even wrap my head around. He is often, as you perhaps know, associated with

modernist free-form poem, and that is certainly the case with the poem that I'm going to

be reading today called Injusts.

This is how it goes.

Injust spring when the world is mud.

Lushes the little lame balloon man whistles.

Fat and we and Eddie and Bill come running from marbles and piracies, and it's spring when the world is puddle wonderful.

The queer old balloon man, fat and wee, and Betty and Isbel come dancing from hopscotch and jumprope,

and it's spring and the goat-footed balloon man whistles far and wee.

So this is a poem that comes from a section of Cummings Poems,

and I believe the translation of that section,

I think it's French initially, and I don't,

I think it means songs of innocence.

And I believe it's the first poem in that collection.

This, of course, definitely references back to, or at least alludes to, Blake's own

collection, Songs of Innocence, or his own series.

And this is a poem, like much of Cummings, that you should really take a look at.

You should make sure that you look at, you want to see visually what he's doing.

Because he talks about hopscotch.

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