[encore] 688: [since feeling is first] by E.E. Cummings

Today’s poem is [since feeling is first] by E.E. Cummings.

The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back on Monday, August 18 with episodes from our new host, Maggie Smith. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host.

In this episode, Ada writes… “I have a friend who will stare at something and say, “Now that’s a poem.” A glove in the snow, a bird feather stuck in the fence post, a good meal. It feels like she is blurring the lines between what we think is a poem and what is poetic, between what is real life and the language we use to capture it.

Today’s poem, by the beloved poet E.E. Cummings, does that work of showing us the resounding “yes” to the poem—and also “yes” to the real, tangible, touchable, life.”

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