"r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r"

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Again, welcome to The Elvynwyd, a blog dedicated exclusively to the art of creative writing. It's taken the better part of the last two months to work out all - or at least most - of this site's technical hiccups, but I'm excited for this blog to finally reach "mostly-functional" status. Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Shall we start?

In the earlier half of the 20th century, E.E. Cummings wrote a poem that absolutely bursts with creative resonance. That poem is entitled "r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r":

r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r
who
a)s w(e loo) k
upnowgath
PPEGORHASS
eringint (o-
aThe) :l
eA
!p:
S a
(r
rIvInG .gRrEaPsPhOs)
to
rea (be) rran (com) gi (e) ngly
,grasshopper;

The central idea behind these curious lines is to capture the mental sensation of seeing a grasshopper leap. Readers stumble through the awkward letters and punctuation, yet at the very end of the poem, the chaotic elements (be)(com)(e) an epiphany of familiarity; the final word, ",grasshopper;" dispels much of the undecipherable jumble clouding the preceding lines. (Commentary on the poem available here.) Cummings thus gives us a wonderful example of the creative writing commandment of "Thou shalt show, and not just tell."

Of course, "showing" doesn't necessarily entail such a marked departure from literary conventions. However, "showing" does entail giving readers some sort of experience. By running our eyes over "r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r," we not only imagine the leap of the grasshopper, but we experience it, which makes Cummings' writing especially effective.

As a writer, what do you want your readers to experience? What can you do to give them that experience?