a lot of people think or believe or know they feel—but that’s thinking or believing or knowing; not feeling. and poetry is feeling—not knowing or believing or thinking.

almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel. why? because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you’re a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you’re nobody-but-yourself.

to be nobody-but-yourself—in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

as for expressing nobody-but-yourself in words, that means working just a little harder than anybody who isn’t a poet can possible imagine. why? because nothing is quite as easy as using words like somebody else. we all of us do exactly this nearly all of the time—and whenever we do it, we are not poets.

- e. e. cummings. | via tmarie