A Poem to Carry in the Blood
E.E. Cummings [icarry your heart with me(icarry it in me)
My reading of this poem, with a small story of why I chose it, is part of Tara Penry’s Poems to Carry in the Blood project.
I read this poem to my granddaughter at her Bat Mitzvah as part of the ceremony where she recited her Torah portion and the essay she wrote to interpret it. The rabbi decided the order of the readings in tribute to her and my reading of this poem occurred before the Kaddish for my son Benjamin Hammerschlag. I will post an essay
about him on November 4th, the date of his death in 2017.
[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
………………………………………………….I fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
“[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]” Copyright 1952, © 1980, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust, from Complete Poems: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation. Source: Poetry (June 1952).
Love, with my thanks to
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Oh Mary, this was just so beautiful. I read your post first and then listened. And I am moved my you and your reading and your heart. Thank you. 💙
I've loved this poem for most of my life. "the root of the root and the bud of the bud" has always sounded Biblical to me.
Thanks for sharing that deeply meaningful context for you. It resonates.