In the face of pressure to conform, expressing oneself is not only an art, but an act of bravery. "To be nobody-but-yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting," wrote poet e.e. cummings, who eschewed literary form, bunked tradition, and created his own style of poetry and art. In this tribute to his creative bravery, Maria Popova of Brain Pickings discusses how cummings didn't find it easy, as an artist's challenge is twofold the first is to feel, and the second to express one's true self. She examines what it is to be a poet, an artist, a human being and how cummings flourished at all three.
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