The Art of Making Possible

The title comes from this article I just read. I'm not sure of the my exact thoughts about the article, and though the poem started out in that context, it doesn't really end up there, or not only there.

The Art of Making Possible

But what if
It’s not? What if
We will choose
Rhetoric over reality
Again? What if
Gravity always wins
Eventually, brings
Us back to earth?

Why keep trying
To fly? Are you
Still trying to win?

We have forced
Metal and circuitry
To do our bidding,
To carry us through
The sky and out
Into space. We can
Pretend to fly.

It’s the journey,
Isn’t it, not the arrival?
Our lives shine en route
To death, and there is
No reason to hide them
Under bushels, even
If the enemy has spies.

Let us take our lesson
From the stars. Shine
As brightly as is in us
To shine, patiently,
Constantly, through the days
When no one sees
And the nights when we
Are worshipped, shine
Until we’ve given
Our heat and our mass
To the universe and we
Quietly, uncomplainingly,
Burn ourselves out.