I have to confess I'm a bit of a poetry fan, but I'm quite fussy about the types of poems I enjoy. Thinking about our work with typesetting, and what we've learnt about text readibility during the year made me think of E. E. Cummings, a 20th century American poet who I really like, mostly because his work is just so unique and unusual. He deliberately defies any fundamental conventions of poetry and seems to focus more on playing around with word structure and page layout, and changing the function of punctuation. The overall design of text on the page is really important in grasping the essence of the poem. His poems can be pretty hard to read, mainly because of their lack of rhythm and strange syntax, but you find they are really clever if you take time to work them out. Here is one of his free verse poems that I like:


because it's

because it's

Spring
thingS

dare to do people

(& not
the other way

round)because it

's A
pril

Lives lead their own

persons(in
stead

of everybodyelse's)but

what's wholly
marvellous my

Darling

is that you &
i are more than you

& i(be

ca
us

e It's we)


This one is a bit more 'normal'...

(Me up at does)

Me up at does
out of the floor
quietly Stare
a poisoned mouse

still who alive
is asking What
have i done that
You wouldn't have