May I be gay

may i be gay

like every lark
who lifts his life

from all the dark


who wings his why

beyond because
and sings an if

of day to yes

If ever there was a poem that succinctly expressed a fundamental tenet of my philosophy, this is it. Out of the crushing despair of the world, we must choose to lift our lives out of the darkness and make our days light. There is such vast wisdom in this poem. Such incredible depth. Even the simple phrasing that conveys that we have a choice about our days. That we choose our moods. That we may "sing" ourselves into a better place. What could be more true than that? And yet less followed?

I recite this poem to my sons quite often, and in my own head many times a day.

I resolve every day to hold tight the truth of suffering, to ackowledge daily the murderous horror of humanity, and by seeing this and letting it wash wholly through me, allow myself to sing myself into a place of light and yes because those are true too.

What better way to express the ineffable feeling of euphoric enlightenment than to call it "Yes"? I think there is no truer way. As with all of Mr. Cummings poetry, he isn't strange and creative with language for the sake of being cute, he is unorthodox because the truth he tries to express is not possible within the normal confines of our language.

Like Rumi said: Language is a tailors shop where nothing fits.

Cummings knew this as many of us do. He brilliantly reorganizes the language to find a truer expression of these ineffable ideas than has ever been conjured elsewhere in English.

This poem is such a deceptively simple and lovely little beacon of light. I treasure it immensely.