Reading “The World Has Need of You” by Ellen Bass
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Reading “The World Has Need of You” by Ellen Bass from Like a Beggar, Copper Canyon Press.
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This poem distills the human condition of knowing and not knowing so well, and it is so kind in its delivery of harsh realities. I feel cared for reading it while reminded of my utter insignificance. I feel the lines of the poem swinging like the arms in the beginning, a prayer for being all the ways we are, all the unavoidable ebb and flow of it. And that damn gravity, eventually. We have to meet up with it sooner or later in more ways than one, like it or not. But maybe it’s possible to feel held when we fall.
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Related print
The Choreography of Ruin broadside features an excerpt from the poem “Saturn's Rings,” also in this book. Ellen was a delight to work with and she signed some copies too!
Links to purchase
Get the book: Like a Beggar and the print: Choreography of Ruin.
