How do we cope with our lives, even though we know that the whole universe is coming to an end?
We cope best by forming connections, creating the world we want to live in, and cherishing the time we have on this beautiful but lonely planet.
The seventh annual Universe in Verse — a loving celebration of the wonder of reality through both science and poetry — includes a joyful collaboration with Australian musician and writer Nick Cave and Brazilian artist and filmmaker Daniel Bruson on an animated poem exploring this fundamental question of being alive.
BUT WE HAD MUSIC
by Maria PopovaRight this minute
across time zones and opinions
people are
making plans
making meals
making promises and poemswhile
at the center of our galaxy
a black hole with the mass of
four billion suns
screams its open-mouth kiss
of oblivion.Someday it will swallow
Euclid’s postulates and the Goldberg Variations,
swallow calculus and Leaves of Grass.I know this.
And still
when the constellation of starlings
flickers across the evening sky,
it is enoughto stand here
for an irrevocable minute
agape with wonder.It is eternity.
At 7PM EST on April 7, watch the livestream of the 2024 Universe in Verse, which celebrates the science and wonder of eclipses, to listen to Nick share the love story of marrying the person he loves, along with other incredible individuals bringing to life the science of gravity, tides, black holes, the Moon's formation, and the Sun's chemistry through poems and stories that help us face reality and expand our understanding of ourselves and others.
Combine this with Daniel Bruson’s stunning animation of former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith’s poem “My God, It’s Full of Stars” from a previous season of The Universe in Verse, then revisit Nick Cave's thoughts on the process of aging and the solution to our feelings of helplessness in the face of existence.
