everything here
seems to need us
–Rainer Maria Rilke
I can hardly imagine it
as I walk to the lighthouse, feeling the ancient
prayer of my arms swinging
in counterpoint to my feet.
Here I am, suspended
between the sidewalk and twilight,
the sky dimming so fast it seems alive.
What if you felt the invisible
tug between you and everything?
A boy on a bicycle rides by,
his white shirt open, flaring
behind him like wings.
It’s a hard time to be human. We know too much
and too little. Does the breeze need us?
The cliffs? The gulls?
If you’ve managed to do one good thing,
the ocean doesn’t care.
But when Newton’s apple fell toward the earth,
the earth, ever so slightly, fell
toward the apple.
“The World Has Need of You” by Ellen Bass from Like a Beggar. © Copper Canyon Press, 2014. (buy now)
HemmingPlay 
Such a simple idea, and simple language…but it made my throat tighten with sudden emotion. If for no other reason, I feel the truth of this because it plays with basic principals of science and our understanding of universal forces of attraction or gravity.
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