The Daily Boost #475

Expect a bright tomorrow anyway

This incredible choral piece by Elizabeth Alexander carries the following epigraph:

“Scientists now say the planet itself is generating a . . . kind of music, huge, swirling loops of sound, a song so strange you can’t really fathom it, so low it can’t be heard by human ears.”—Mark Morford, from “How To Sing Like a Planet,” San Francisco Chronicle


HOW TO SING LIKE A PLANET
Elizabeth Alexander

Let everything unfold in its own time.
Accept what’s beyond your control.
Revel in simple harmonic motion.
Turn. Rotate.

Get charged up.
Be weak. Be strong.
Don’t fight friction.
Vibrate sympathetically.
Don’t be afraid to get into a groove.

Let gravity have its way with you.
Revolve around something luminous.

Wheel, whirl,
Slide, collide,
Circle, cycle,
Amble, gambol,
Resonate, radiate,
Innovate, renovate,
Oscillate, fluctuate, circumnavigate, flow.

Bloom periodically.
Hunker down when you must.
Wobble from time to time without apology.

Know that annihilation’s possible any time,
But expect a bright tomorrow’s coming anyway.

(My thanks to Elizabeth Alexander and the Massachusetts All-State Honors Choir.)

---

🧡 Thanks for reading! As part of The Raft, this newsletter is kept afloat by beautiful readers like you. If you like my work, please support it by becoming a paid subscriber, buying my books, or inviting me to speak. And remember to add your 2¢ by leaving comments!

---

The Gentle Nudge

No events next week, as I’ll be out of studio.