somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond

by E.E. Cummings

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(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)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands

Why I love this poem:
It is difficult NOT to love this poem. I first heard this poem in the
Woody Allen movie Hannah and Her Sisters. It's probably the most
beautiful scene in the movie. Michael Caine's character reveals to his
wife's sister that he's in love with her by buying her an anthology of
e.e. cummings and dog earring this particular poem. The parentheses
at the end of the poem give it this touching intimate quality. I'm
surprised more poets don't steal the idea. Whenever I read this
it breaks my heart a little bit. I don't know if it's the poem
or the scene in the movie. I guess it'll always be a little bit
of both. It's raining here in Dallas (which it rarely does) so I
thought instantly of this cummings classic.