“The Singularity” by Marie Howe
Subject
- English & Language Arts
Language
English — USUpdated
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(after Stephen Hawking)
Do you sometimes want to wake up to the singularity
1
we once were?
so compact nobody
needed a bed, or food or money—
nobody hiding in the school bathroom
or home alone
pulling open the drawer
where the pills are kept.
For every atom belonging to me as good
Belongs to you.
2
Remember?
There was no Nature. No
them. No tests
to determine if the elephant
grieves her calf or if
the coral reef feels pain. Trashed
oceans don’t speak English or Farsi or French;
would that we could wake up to what we were
—when we were ocean and before that
to when sky was earth, and animal was energy, and rock was
liquid and stars were space and space was not
at all—nothing
before we came to believe humans were so important
before this awful loneliness.
Can molecules recall it?
what once was? before anything happened?
No I, no We, no one. No was
No verb no noun
only a tiny tiny dot brimming with
is is is is is
All everything home 3
Teach a Facing History lesson featuring this resource.
- 1Reference to Stephen Hawking's theory of "singularity," which posits that our collective origins stem from a single point in the universe, suggesting we all came from the same place billions of years ago.
- 2Reference to Walt Whitman's 1892 poem "Song of Myself," suggesting we all come from the same parts of the universe.
- 3"The Singularity", from NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Marie Howe. Copyright © 2024 by Marie Howe. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
How to Cite This Reading
Facing History & Ourselves, ““The Singularity” by Marie Howe”, last updated July 22, 2024.