Last Thursday night, the Trust kicked off our month of Twilight Tours with a walk focusing on the poet E.E. Cummings. Though we were inundated with bugs, the tour went splendidly. Dee Morris, the tour guide, told us about word usage on gravestones and spoke about some other writers on the way to Cummings' grave. When we arrived at the poet's modest, ground-level stone, everyone took a seat and I spoke a little bit about my personal relationship with Cummings' work. Discovering his poetry had a profound effect on me: it made me want to become a writer. In hindsight, I realize how this decision colored every subsequent one. Because I wanted to become a writer, I started reading more, and learning more, which prompted me to study literature in college, which led me to Boston, which led me to working at the cemetery that holds Cummings' remains. Then I read a few of my favorite Cummings poems: "love's function is to fabricate unknownness" and "as freedom is a breakfastfood." Cecily Miller, the Trust's Executive Director read a favorite poem of hers as well: "i thank You God for most this amazing." Standing at his gravesite, reading his work, I felt proud, connected to his words in a way I never have before. It was a great start to this new event.
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