If you read my earlier take on how leading interactive experiences and executives relate closely to great poetry, this next bit won’t come as any surprise.

If you haven’t, I’m a firm believer that poets were (and still remain) some of the worlds best thinkers on how people, societies, and technology interact in a succinct and emotional way.

As interactive professionals, narrative is becoming the next big thing, and poetry teaches a lot about creating UX that hits home fast.

These ideas seemed completely validated last night as I read one of my favorites, E.E. Cummings. He wrote this poem, since feeling is first, way back in 1926. While obviously a love poem, it also spoke to me about looking beyond tactics and standards and syntax to achieve an experience more meaningful for the reader (read: user). Kinda like what Jared Spool was saying at SXSW.

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don’t cry
–the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids’ flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life’s not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

EE: you’re a lyrical gangsta!

Related posts:

1. For All the Creatives Out There
2. Kicking off Poetry Month 2009: Langston Hughes
3. Gizmos That Up The Interactive Ante
4. SXSW Live: th-th-that’s all folks (from interactive)