ee cummings’ erotic poem
e e cummings has been a favorite American poet for almost a century. Born in 1894 in Cambridge, Mass, he was raised in a liberal Unitarian family that encouraged the artistic expression of the bright, creative boy. Between the ages of 8 and 22, he wrote everyday, eventually producing over 2900 poems over his lifetime (he died in 1962). Famous for ignoring normal grammar, cummings often used no punctuation at all in his poems, hence his use of lower-case letters.
When he was just out of college—he graduated from Harvard, as did his father and most of his friends—he started an affair with Elaine Orr, a married woman, whom he eventually married. It was during this highly amorous time period that cummings produced his most erotic poems. Our favorite is the deliciously titled, “i like my body when it is with your“.
Enjoy this reading by the seductive Eve’s Garden. And read along below.
i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite new a thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones, and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz
of your electric fur, and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh . . . . And eyes big love-crumbs,
and possibly i like the thrill
of under me you so quite new
