Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Sarah Grace Tuttle, Here. Thank you, Sarah, for hosting! Be sure to stop by to see what she has for us this week.
I was browsing in a book store today and saw a book I already own by Bill Bryson, “A Short History of Nearly Everything.” I had used this book in a previous post on supernovae HERE. I sat with a coffee and read a chapter entitled “Lonely Planet,” that begins:
"It isn't easy being an organism. In the whole universe, as far as we yet know, there is only one place, an inconspicuous outpost of the Milky Way called Earth, that will sustain you, and even it can be pretty grudging." Bill Bryson p. 239
Lucky circumstances make it possible for us to be alive and thrive on Earth. Importantly, we are just the right location from the sun. Any closer, we’d burn up. Any farther we’d freeze.
Earth also has the right elements, such as oxygen, sodium, potassium, iron, and many others that we need to survive.
Our molten liquid interior apparently is a big plus. First, it helped produce the gasses in our precious atmosphere and it creates a magnetic field that protects us from cosmic radiation.
Our large moon, a quarter of the diameter compared to Earth, in it’s close proximity keeps Earth from “wobbling like a top.”
The perfection we see all around us in nature is the result of all the above fortunate happenings.
I have been writing a series of Villanelles to become more familiar with the form. So here’s one inspired by Bill Bryson and Planet Earth.
A PERFECT PLACE Earth has been perfect place, not too cold, not too hot, because of where we spin in space. Mars next door is a frozen waste, and Venus is a fiery dot, but Earth became a perfect place. It's possible we could be outpaced by "others" who gave life a shot outside this place we spin in space, but so far we haven't found a trace of oxygen in a temperate spot, in another leafy perfect place. Celebrate! Embrace! Luckier to be alive than not, to think and feel and spin in space. Oh, we could use a brilliant plot, a failsafe way to save the race. The Earth has been a perfect place, because of where we spin in space. © Janice Scully 2022
Thank you Sarah for hosting. Have a great weekend everyone.