since feeling is first
This belongs to Andi from London.
My tattoo is from ee cumming's poem 'since feeling is first'. For me, it means to stop over thinking everything and go on instinct.
I love his poetry and it was made for tattoos!
(sleep wake hope and then)
This is Gabby's tattoo.
This poem has been my favorite since I chose to recite it in my 9th grade English class. It's about two lovers, anyone and no one, who fall in love and eventually die. People don't really like them, and they don't do anything spectacular with their lives. They just go about their mundane existence, and when they die the world just moves on. What got me about this line in particular is that in our mundane existence, we can still wake up each day with someone we love and we can still hope. There's something so simplistically beautiful about that.
someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then)they
said their nevers they slept their dream
- Excerpt from anyone lived in a pretty how town by e.e. cummings
i like my body when it’s with your body
This belongs to Christina.
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
- i like my body when it is with your by e.e. cummings
i carry your heart
This belongs to Catherine Knott.
I got it as a link to my sister who has the poem tattooed on her leg. It's another way we are connected now, though we live on opposite sides of the country. She got the same tattoo as me a few years back, so I'm reciprocating the love here.
This is Diane's.
The rose was tattooed in October of 2006 and the writing in August of 2008, both by Scott Clark at Pushing Ink in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is in memory of a close friend of mine and my family's who died very unexpectedly at the age of 26. She has been my inspiration to be the best person that I can be, and I had this tattooed so she will always be close by me, and always "have my back".
This is Jenni's.
It was originally a commemoration for my Nana who passed away from M.S. (multiple sclerosis). My mom and I found the poem when she entered hospice and it provided a lot of comfort for us. I just feel like it is a beautiful way to remember someone.
This is Nicóle's. She blogged about her tattoo here.
This belongs to Leah.
Perhaps it's overdone, but my husband and I had "i carry your heart with me" by e.e. cummings read at our wedding last November. Shortly after, we both had a line from the poem, along with our wedding date tattooed on us. My husband deploys with the Army tomorrow [sent in 2011], and it's a nice sentiment/reminder that even though we are apart, our hearts are interlinked.
This belongs to Sara.
Ever since high school I have been in love with e.e. cummings poetry. This past winter my brother died in a car accident and at his memorial service I read the poem ‘i carry your heart’. It means a lot to me in the fact I really believe that I carry a piece of him at all times, and as I grow he is with me. He was only twenty-seven when he passed, but I feel as if he is still around, learning and growing with me. He is forever my inspiration to go balls to the wall, and never look back. Thanks for your time.
This belongs to Bridget.
This belongs to Katie.
This poem was read at my Mom's services. She had a butterfly tattoo so I decided to get one as well. The butterfly is something that has been overdone and this poem has been inked on many people before me, but the significance of the two couldn't be any more important to me and I'm really glad I decided to have it done. If ever a day passed that I didn't think about my Mom, this is a constant reminder that she's watching over me and just a little more a part of me.
This belongs to Meg, UK.
To be honest the title means a lot more to me than the poem in full. It is for everyone I have known as a friend or more, or less that has made an impact on me. No matter how I feel about them now I will always carry a piece of them in my heart.
This is Katie's.
I lost my dad five years ago, and have since been looking for a tattoo idea that would best commemorate his life and all that he meant to me. The first time I read this poem I fell in love with it, and its beginning really stuck with me. I decided to get it tattooed in a heart shape right above my heart, as a constant reminder that though my dad is gone, he'll always be with me. It's done in my own handwriting.
I carry it in my heart
This is Emily's tattoo.
The tattoo is in my boyfriend Quenten's handwriting [which is why there is no parenthesis and an included period], who committed suicide April 17th [2009]. This has always been my favorite poem but had such a deeper meaning while being with Quenten. I felt this poem described the way I felt about him. After his death, I found this quote in many of his letters to me. It's a little reminder that no matter what, he will he will always be with me and we will forever have each other's hearts. I will always love him, no matter where I am in life.
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 the 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)
- e. e. cummings, i carry your heart with me
as small as a world
This tattoo belongs to Chealsye.
e.e. cummings is by far my favorite poet, and this my favorite of his work. The line about the stone hit me hard when I first stumbled across this poem in a textbook at 16. Fell in love instantly, but it also pained me. Seriously though, how beautiful is that? "As small as a world and as large as alone" Brilliant too. This world, this physical place that is large enough to inhabit the land, ocean, 7 billion people, countless species of animals, that all pales in comparison to the feeling of being alone. It is such a lovely poem, and spoke to me. We always find what we need. Growing up in Florida, and as a child loving the ocean (not so much in my mid-teen years) definitely adds to it.
maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach(to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and
milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and
may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea
- "maggie and milly and molly and may" by e.e. cummings
i carry your heart
This is Tiffany's tattoo:
I got the tattoo last spring, in honor of my husband, whose heart I carry in mine.
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 the 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)
- e. e. cummings
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