This Amazing Day

As a teenager, eecummings was one of my favourite poets. There was something alluring about an adult who chose not to capitalize words, punctuate sentences or even put words in the proper order.

My favourite poem was “thank you god for most this amazing”. I learned it by heart.

It begins like this…

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

Isn’t that beautiful. It makes me instantly happy to read those words. Please feel free to translate the word God if you like. Perhaps, Spirit, Love or Nature.

It continues with…

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

I love new beginnings. I rely on them to “right” me when I have once again fallen down.

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

“Lifted from the no”. The contrast of falling down and then picking ourselves up is so powerful.

Ahhh…

This seemed a fitting poem to choose for a Unitarian summer service that my partner and I led a few weeks ago. eecummings was a Unitarian and the hymn book contains a few of his readings and even a hymn.

Our service was entitled, “Reflections on Nature” with the invitation, “How does your relationship with nature nourish you? Where do you find your connection; drawing the paddle through the still water, moving your hands in the soil, watching the clouds move across the sky? Join us for an interactive hour of poetry storytelling and ritual”.

20 of us gathered in a circle at the service and read the eecummings poem aloud together followed by a few delicious moments of silence as we took the words in.

Then one by one whenever someone felt moved, we said a line or a word that stood out for us. Sometimes a person would say a single word and the next person would say that word too. Occasionally there would be a long silence followed by a flurry of new offerings.

We shared an experience by creating a new poem that started something like this…

this amazing day
true blue dream
greenly spirits of trees
amazing
amazing
amazing

alive again today
earth
sun
wings

It was a beautiful ritual listening to our voices echoing across the circle and hearing the poem in a whole new way.

Here is the poem in its entirety. Read it silently, read it aloud, read it with a friend, change the words around. Enjoy!

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 of 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)