a better fate / than wisdom

For me, the poem is an accusation:

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

so e. e. cummings sings, denouncing wisdom, syntax, and the paragraph for the “better fate” of feeling and the kiss.

As one who cannot help but pay attention to the syntax of things, I want to object: I, too, can wholly kiss. Still, I concede this much: for me, there is perplexity in kissing.

Why do human beings kiss? The question can be asked in many ways, and I am bemused by all of them. What are the origins of the romantic kiss? Did it evolve by natural selection, a propensity embodied in our genes? Is it a cultural invention? When did the first of us kiss one another open-mouthed? What are the reasons for the kiss? What purpose does it serve—in biology, in society, in relationships, for us?

“Why is there no philosophy of the kiss, one of the most rapturous experiences of which human beings are capable?” asks Christopher Hamilton in Rapture. But the ki…