When I ran across this Ellen Bass poem recently, I was immediately drawn to the line, “It’s a hard time to be human.”

I’m sure there’s never been a time when it wasn’t hard to be human. But this is our time, and our world seems to be spinning off course.

And yet, as the poem’s title says, “The World Has Need of You.” It’s hard to credit that our little lives, words, and actions can make a difference, but they do. The “proof” is in the last three lines of this poem, which I’ll let you read for yourself.

I’ll simply say, “Let’s get out there and drop lots of apples!” The world is full of people of good will — together we can help the good earth get back to spinning properly on its axis!

The World Has Need Of You
by Ellen Bass

everything here
seems to need us
—Rainer Maria Rilke

I can hardly imagine it
as I walk to the lighthouse, feeling the ancient
prayer of my arms swinging
in counterpoint to my feet.
Here I am, suspended
between the sidewalk and twilight,
the sky dimming so fast it seems alive.

(Excerpted from Like a Beggar. Read the full poem here.)