i was always amazed by how much poetry my teacher had memorized. but one day while talking to him, he told me that he memorized poems to recite when need be to get through difficult times. he’s inspired me to do the same, so that i have a less self-destructive method of coping with difficult times. the following poem is the one he told me is the most dear to him (in fact, he used it as part of his presentation to get his current job; quirky little thing, fate is):
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
e.e. cummings
