far from the madding crowd

i am a little church(no great cathedral)
far from the splendor and squalor of hurrying cities
--i do not worry if briefer days grow briefest,
i am not sorry when sun and rain make april

my life is the life of the reaper and the sower;
my prayers are prayers of earth's own clumsily striving
(finding and losing and laughing and crying)children
whose any sadness or joy is my grief or my gladness

text: e e cummings, 'i am a little church' (95 poems), 1958
photo: από την ταινία του robert siodmak, 'people on sunday' (menschen am sonntag), 1930