one more today*

a reminder to celebrate ee cummings' birthday... (via eek!, who notes that edward estlin cummings "taught gazillions of fifteen-year-olds that capitals just ain't cool. thanks to this lucky trick, creative writing instructors have at least one sure-fire lesson plan a year.")

said cummings at different times when he was being quotable:

"Always the more beautiful answer who asks the more beautiful question."
"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."
"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting."
"Be of love (a little) more careful than of anything."
"Knowledge is a polite word for dead but not buried imagination."
"America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn't standing still."

you might also want to check out the audio recordings at the academy of american poets site: yes is a pleasant country (read by Susanne Abbuehl) and why must itself up every of a park (read by the author).

* capsless bits in honor of for this lone instance in shaken & stirred history.