“We,this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, or life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing,irresistible tenderness
That the haughty (proud, arrogant) neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines…” - “A dauntless and Startling Truth” – Maya Angelou’s stunning humanist poem inspired by Carl Sagan and the Voyager, or inverting the telescope to reflect humanity back to itself with a dazzling message so very timely today. Hear astrophysicist Janna Levin’s sublime reading of the poem here.
Source: brainpickings.org