Friday, May 8, 2009

Poetry Friday: "Wings"



"Wings" by Miroslav Holub

We have
a microsopic anatomy
of the whale
this
gives
Man
assurance
-William Carlos Williams

We have
a map of the universe
for microbes,
we have
a map of a microbe
for the universe.

we have
a Grand Master of chess
made of electronic circuits.

But above all
we have
the ability
to sort peas,
to cup water in our hands,
to seek
the right screw
under the sofa
for hours

This
gives us
wings.

****
(I feel obliged to share the writing-related thought that seeking "the right screw under the sofa for hours" seems not unlike searching for the right word for hours. But I love this poem mostly because it reminds me how utterly simple it is to be human.)



1 comment:

  1. Wow. I'm not usually a big fan of poetry, but that was pretty good.

    To me, this poem shows how humans are at the same time part of the universe in which we live and totally lost and alien in it.

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