The poet E.E. Cummings was born on this day, October 14
December 20, 1956 – Allen Ginsberg, writing from Paterson, New Jersey
“Dear Mr Cummings,
Came to your door. You were out. I am writing , will be in NY for a month, then leave for Europe with 2 other poets – Jack Kerouac and Gregory Corso. Came from San Francisco where we held big crazy drunken poetry readings. I sent you my book, Howl, from there, to 4 Patchin Place, did you get it, did you read it? Have manuscript of Corso, Kerouac, (Gary) Snyder (25 year old Zen hip young cocksman who lives, with a sweet mind in Kyoto monastery translating the Zen Lunatic poets) and other SF recent poets to read to you, a few poems, write me a postcard, I’d like to come by
Sincerely,
Allen Ginsberg
[ps] – (Kenneth) Rexroth gave me your address, said you never read your mail anyway so that’s why I knocked on the door before.”
Interesting that he claimed Cummings had no influence on him. In April 1955, a few months before starting “Howl,” Ginsberg wrote a poem that seems to be titled “After Cummings” and uses “who…” to begin most of its lines. This was during a period of several months when he was questioning his earlier poetic methods and looking for a new voice. He does not list Cummings in his reading for that period, and perhaps “After” suggests a lack of influence more than an influence, but it is interesting nonetheless that he wrote something that seems to have been a prototype of the Howl anaphoric method and connected it to Cummings. His handwriting is hard to read but he seems to write:
Whose hands build oceans
Who whistled thunder
Who thought out solar systems
Who sat in the middle of the (universal?) brain and pondered