“Singularity (after Stephen Hawking)” by Marie Howe

"While inspired by Stephen Hawking (who had just returned his stardust to the universe several weeks earlier) and titled after his trailblazing work on black holes and singularities, this poem is at bottom a stunning meditation on the interconnectedness of belonging across space and time, across selves and species, across the myriad artificial unbelongings we have manufactured as we have drifted further and further from our elemental nature. Its closing line is an invocation, an incantation, ending with a timeless word of staggering resonance today: home." + Maria Popova

Poem by Marie Howe. Text and context: www.brainpickings.org/2020/04/23/singularity-marie-howe-animated

Created for The Universe in Verse: www.brainpickings.org/the-universe-in-verse

Produced by SALT Project (www.saltproject.org) with Maria Popova (www.brainpickings.org).

Original music by Zoë Keating (www.zoekeating.com).

Illustration by paper cut artist extraordinaire Elena Skoreyko Wagner (www.elenastreehouse.com) and animated by the magnificent Mariana Lopez.

This has been a multi-woman labor of love, with everyone involved donating their time and talent.