I'd like a definitive citation for a poem that contains the line "damn
everything but the cirus" (or some very close variation on that). 
I've seen a full text, and it's sometimes attributed to ee cummings,
but I can't find it in any of his works.

Hello spetey,

This line comes from the play "Him."

Online posting, "Re:! Circus Quote," by Janice M. Shelnutt (07 Mar 1994)
STUMPERS-L Archives
http://listserv.dom.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind9403&L=stumpers-l&D=0&O=D&P=26114

Its occurrence in "Him" is apparently referred to in the title of an
article about the play:

"Him [1927]" [under "Other Works on Him"; article by Smeltsor]
Spring: The Journal of the E.E. Cummings Society
http://www.gvsu.edu/english/cummings/Him.htm

It appears that the full text "it means damn everything that is grim,
dull, motionless, unrisking inward turning" is not by E.E. Cummings,
but rather by someone named S. Helen Kelley.

"Book Review - The Botolph Group, Inc." (Vol 26, No. 1 - April 1969)
[bottom of page]
Theology Today
http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1969/v26-1-bookreview9.htm

- justaskscott


Search strategy --

Searched on Google for various combinations of these terms:

"everything but the circus"
cummings
"grim dull"
kelley
him
1927

Very nice work that carefully resolved all residual questions, thanks!
 Ideally I might have gotten a little context for the line from the
play, but that's probably too much to ask!

Would that be "damn everything but the circus"?