Amanda Palmer has recently released her reading of E.E. Cummings poem “Humanity I Love You”. This poem was the first of a five-part work called “La Guerre”, which can be found from his collection called Tulips and Chimneys.
According to Brain Pickings, Amanda Palmer had previously read the poems “Possibilities” and “Life While-You-Wait” by Polish Nobel laureate Wislawa Szymborska. The song can be listened to below.
Amanda reads the piece in a calm passionate voice, with small pauses in between the lines. In the beginning of the artist speaks the words “Humanity, I love you” but near the end of the poem, she says “Humanity, I hate you”. This shows that the meaning of the poem shows that its more about humanity’s bad rather than its good, comparing scenarios about how we would rather do one thing than another.
The artist recently released a cover of Elliot Smith’s “Picture of Me” while also announcing the soon release of a new album called Piano is Evil.