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May 06, 2009 |
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Such Small Hands
FOUND by Ken Krimstein
in Manhattan, NY
Flipping through the "Penguin Book of Love Poetry," while aimlessly killing time at my favorite bookstore (Housing Works), the paperback opened to this note. Obviously a very sentimental possession. I would have bought the book (it was only 50 cents, and for a good cause) but its spine had gone all crumbly, like English paperbacks do, falling apart. Sheaves of paper were slipping out. So I took the card. Then, when I got home, I looked up the cummings poem online, the missive that inspired this eternal tribute. The last line reads, "nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands." With Heath's choice of friends, you gotta wonder if she and Joe are still hanging? You have to wonder if Erica was angry, upset to be relegated to this submissive role, complete with smiley face. Did Heath and Joe bust up when Heath caught Joe and Erica in a steamy, un-cummings-like Philip Larkin-esque entanglement? All we have is this note, and the delightful balloon handwriting, and the sentiments. But, in a way, that's enough. More than enough.
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
Ken, I think you've got the roles mixed up — Heath is a man's name. He's asking Erica (a friend, or perhaps a sister) to read the Cummings at his wedding, and suggesting she recite some of the others to her sweetie Joe. Perhaps the other poems are steamy, making it a "Nudge nudge wink wink" sort of note, or perhaps Joe is a bit of a stiff-neck who needs some heavy romantic hints dropped on him.
More than enough, indeed. Wow. My head hurts just from reading the Finder's comment. All that and I still had to google for the title of the poem?
(which is "somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond")
I would have gone ahead and bought the book for 50 cents, falling apart or not. In fact, inexpensive falling-apart books are good because you can cannibalize them, guilt free, for other altered book projects.
I wonder if Heath and Erica are siblings. The "all my love" at the end seems strange when each of them is obviously with someone else.
I also would have bought the book since it was only 50 cents.
You passed up a falling apart book of poetry and then googled the poem when you got home? That's got to be the most disappointedly anti-climatic thing I've ever heard. Hopelessly unromantic.
huh...it's very reminiscent of a line in Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters"
excerpt:
Elliot turns and walks back down the center aisle to a row of books he'd already passed.
ELLIOT
(pointing to a book
on a shelf, continuing)
e.e. cummings. I'd like to get you
this.
LEE
(offscreen, laughing)
Oh, no, I can't let you get me that.
That's too much.
ELLIOT
(pulling the book off
the shelf and browsing
through it)
Oh, oh, yes. I-I-I-'d like to, uh,
uh, very much.
LEE
(offscreen)
No, I don't think so.
ELLIOT
(gesturing with the book, looking at the offscreen Lee)
I-I read a poem of you and thought
of his last week.
(nervously laughing, trying to correct his mistake)
A poem of
(laughing)
his and thought of you last--
(laughing)
You'll be fine, though.
(chuckling)
Lee walks over to Elliot in the center aisle. She looks at
the book.
LEE
(overlapping)
Uh, uh, this is great. I mean, I
love e.e. cummings, but I can't let
you get this.
ELLIOT
(overlapping, patting
the book)
Yes, I'd...I-I-I'd love, I'd love
to get you this.
LEE
(looking down at the book)
Well, sure.
ELLIOT
(overlapping)
And-and maybe, um...maybe we could
discuss it sometime.
He hands Lee the book. She thumbs through it, as the movie cuts to:
The street outside the bookstore. Lee, holding the book in a brown bag, and Elliot are walking out.
LEE
(laughing, holding up
the bag)
Well, thanks a lot.
ELLIOT
(pointing to the bookstore)
Thanks for showing me the bookstore.
Perhaps you could, uh, take me to
an AA meeting sometime. Uh...uh,
I'd love to see what goes on.
LEE
(nodding)
Well, yeah, yeah. You'd love it.
It's really entertaining. You'd
have a good time.
(stepping closer to
the curb and hailing
a cab)
I know you would.
ELLIOT
(pointing to the book)
And, uh, d-don't forget the poem on
page a hundred and twelve. It
reminded me of you.
A taxi pulls over to the curb; they walk over to it.
LEE
(laughing)
Really? Well...
Elliot opens the rear door for Lee. She laughs as she gets in.
ELLIOT
(leaning down to talk
to Lee in the cab)
Page a hundred and twelve.
LEE
Bye.
ELLIOT
(closing the taxi
door for Lee)
Bye.
He watches the taxi pull away.
CUT TO:
INT. FREDERICK'S LOFT BEDROOM - NIGHT
Lee, in slacks and shirt, is curled up on the bed, her back
to the camera, as she reads the e.e. cummings poem in the
glow of a night-table lamp. The piano music is still heard.
LEE (V.O.)
(reading)
"your slightest look easily will
unclose me
though I have closed myself as
fingers,
you open always petal by petal
myself...
As Lee continues to read aloud, the movie cuts to Elliot's
darkened den, lit by a light in the hallway. Elliot enters,
wearing a robe, crossing the room in the dark.
LEE (V.O.)
(continuing reading)
"...as Spring opens
[touching skillfully, mysteriously]
her first rose
[i do not know what it is about you
that closes and opens;
only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper
than
all roses]...
Elliot turns on a light. The camera stays on his face as he
looks off into the distance, mouthing indistinctly the line
of poetry Lee next reads.
LEE (V.O.)
(continuing reading)
"nobody, not even the rain, has
such small hands."
The film leaves Elliot's face and cuts back to the loft,
where Lee, having finished the poem, sits up in the bed,
staring pensively, lost in her thoughts.
Impessive, Gabriella! How many times have you seen that movie?!
Also, if you wouldn't mind having some kids for me. Much apprecited.
Wait. What if "Heath" is short for Heather? Of course, it would be pronounced Heth, and she probably goes by that a lot, but when she writes it down it only looks right by writing it "Heath"
Ken, you're very strange.
I think I have a new favourite poem. And perhaps need to see "Hannah and Her Sisters".
great story
reading e.
e.
cummings
in high school made me
write without uppercase
letters
(or try to,
anyway) for a year
or so.
this find
(though)
reads more like a
soap
opera
than a poem to
me
and gabriela's
movie script
is
too
l
o
n
g
and who says cummings isn't steamy... "i like my body when it is with your body"?!
I am in shock right now- because Librarian said every.single.thing. I was going to.
But in a much more artistic way than I would have.
Wow, Heath has definitely seen Hannah and Her Sisters.
And Heath thinks he loves Erica.
You don't write "all my love" notes to ask a simple favor. He wants to savor her reading the poem.
out in up down beat me to it: I think Heath is short for Heather. IMHO, most guys don't what is read/not read at their weddings.
Otherwise, the finder's comments are too confusing...time for more coffee
That is a good read. I really enjoyed not having to think to hard to get it while I am at work. lol
Marriages involving small hands rarely work.
this is a sweet note.
am i the only person who has heard of heath as a female name? the handwriting (not to generalize) is pretty feminine, and heath is the one picking out poetry for the wedding. i feel like erica is the maid of honor.
i'll take this as a simple, honest note. because i have a bit of faith left in humanity.
but....i'm probably wrong. heath is totally cheating on his or her fiance(e) but still wants erica to read poetry at their wedding and to her significant other. what??? i'll stick with my innocent theory.
"Mr. Krimstein is a writer, cartoonist, father, and grump who lives in New York City. So there."
My daughter (now 5) used to think Heath Ledger's name was Beef Ledger.
Umm... could "Heath" be short for "Heather?"
Heath's handwriting looks like a girl.
@jere7my in Brighton, MA - I agree
@bored in the computer room - I agree
@Librarian in the woodwork - I agree
To sum this one up -
via Woody Allen's "Annie Hall"
Duane: Can I confess something? I tell you this as an artist,I think you'll understand. Sometimes when I'm driving... on the road at night... I see two headlights coming toward me. Fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn the wheel quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate the explosion. The sound of shattering glass. The... flames rising out of the flowing gasoline.
Alvy Singer: Right. Well, I have to - I have to go now, Duane, because I, I'm due back on the planet Earth.
oh wow.
gabriela, that was very creative. if slightly... elongated.
Librarian, I love your comments. I look for them every day.
And URGH to the Finder's comment. 'And that is enough. More than enough.' Bleurgghhhh, someone let me be sick. Soppy or what?
Ugh Ken! Your description is sooo annoying! Plus it's so flowery I can't believe a man wrote it.
As for the note- god Heath grow some balls! Your as unmanly as Ken! Plus you have really girly handwriting.
I CERTAINLY hope that Heath is short for Heather, and Heather is marrying Joe, and Erica is the maid of honor or sister or something. But it still doesn't explain why Heather would was Erica talking poetry to her fiancee.
Whatever.
Oh and also Ken, $.50??? You're quite a cheap-ass aren't you?
Hey Erin, how's that therapy working out for ya?
Heath and Erica were getting married because he'd gotten her pregnant and she was pro-life. She had already decided to name the baby Joe, which could also serve as a girl's name (Jo). Heath got a book of poetry and picked some for Erica to read at the wedding. Then she could pick some to read to soon-to-be-baby Joe.
Who says e e cummings isn't steamy? Some if it most definitely is.
To the pure all things are pure, I guess.
Not much pure when you're livin in the compost.
thank you, Gabriela.
Ironically, I spent a good portion of my afternoon researching the roots of the infamous "xoxo" so often jotted as insignia. Looks like Heath's only got "lips" for Erica.
This poem is about love as a journey, that draws someone inevitably out of their defensive world into a world that is shared by two people. Its not about someone banging their best friends man, and also the last line isn't a sexual reference.
Come on, can't we enjoy that these people were happy instead of assuming something was wrong? Maybe you are reflecting some inner emotion on to these three strangers.
holy crap. Muse on the loose just made the most sense of this post it than anyone in here. all is not right with the world today.
LOL, Power of my in tense fragility. The only post in this comment section that made me chuckle. (this is not to say or imply that I agree with muse's musings.)
like english books do? uh right..
True story: I once bought a book of e.e. cummings (and that's exactly how the pretentious little fucker wrote it, too: no capital letters) poetry for some slut I was fucking. That last part was just to see if you were paying attention, reader. She was a lady and we were in high school, and as such went no further than third base.
But also I think it's funny to describe buying a book of poetry for a "slut," even though it's certainly been done before. It reminds me of that old Sam Kinison joke: "You read Moby Dick because you thought there was dick in it! It was the only book you read; you ended up sucking the book!"
Seriously, when books of poetry have been exchanged between heterosexual people of opposite sexes, there has been some boot-knocking going on. Or they're both poets.
"But, in a way, that's enough. More than enough."
Did anyone else hear these last two lines in Ira Glass's voice, as violins swell?
Obviously this poem is about a person who knows that someone loves them (but doesn't want it to be so) still being affected by that love.
There are two people in this poem: the love giver (the lover) and the love receiver (the loved one).
The poem talks about the lover being able to open and close the loved one like spring and winter open and close flowers. This the lover can do with barely a touch, and nobody not even the rain (which causes flowers to open and leaves to turn upwards) has such an impact on plants ("plants" or "roses" obviously a metaphor for the loved one) without touching them, like the seasons do.(ie, the seasons have "small hands" whereas the rain would have "big hands" because it must touch plants to do its action.)
And even though she (the loved one) doesn't want the lover to be able to do this (she "closes herself like fingers" in a fist) she is still affected by the lover in as much as she opens up her petals in reaction to the lover like someone forcefully opening your fist finger by finger. She then says "if your wish is to be close to me I will shut myself up like a flower does in the wintertime."
The undertone of the poem is that the loved one (the flower) is affected by the lover involuntarily.
Thing is, flowers want to be opened and closed, that is the life they live. They want to be open in the spring so that they can be pollinated and multiply, they want to be closed in the winter so that they don't die. Flowers are dependent upon the seasons So is the loved one in the poem really as hesitant and reluctant to accept the lover's love?
So Heath, in his attempt to have Erica give it to Joe at the wedding, has inadvertently stumbled upon a poem that basically says "I don't want you to love me, but I am affected by your love, and it is the only reason for my being even as resistant to it as I claim to be."
By the way... Are these folks those artsy fartsy Art or Drama or English majors that go to poetry readings and quote Hemingway and crap? I hate those kind of people.
To add:
I bet "the rose" is Erica, the "rain" is Heath and Spring/Winter is Joe.