"when god decided to invent," by E. E. Cummings

when god decided to invent
everything he took one
breath bigger than a circustent
and everything began

when man determined to destroy
himself he picked the was
of shall and finding only why
smashed it into because

+ E. E. Cummings

E. E. Cummings’ father was a Harvard professor who left the academy to become the ordained minister of South Congregational Church in Boston. In this poem, Cummings lays bare how humanity’s acts of violence aren’t just destructive but also self-destructive (“determined to destroy / himself”), and are effectively the exact opposite of God’s inventive, joyful, communal acts of creation. Rather than enjoying and joining in this grand festival bigger than a circus tent, we instead attempt to destroy it, focusing on the past (“the was / of shall”) and reducing the world’s mysteries (“finding only why”) into our brute, ideological reasons (“smashed it into because”).

In these days so marked by violence and division, Cummings calls us to remember this profound fork in the road, this choice in all we do, represented by these two stanzas: to participate in God’s creative, joyful work, or to participate in the ultimately suicidal work of destruction.

And speaking of creativity, here’s composer Joshua Shank’s interpretation of the poem through a four-minute piece of choral music, performed by the Gonzaga University Choirs.