Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences Book

This is a wonderful book. though not really "about" anything, other than serendipitous turns of thought and coincidences of interaction, it covers so much ground and touches upon so many different subjects and concerns that it will please anyone who has a love of trivia or esoteric knowledge. Weschler is the consummate Knowledgeable Conversationalist, and this exploration of convergences
that he has discovered in his research or simply come upon randomly is a real gem.


also, it quoted in full this astounding poem by Wislawa Szymborska, entitled "Maybe All This":


Maybe all this
is happening in some lab?
Under one lamp by day
and billions by night?

Maybe we're experimental generations?
Poured from one vial to the next,
shaken in test tubes,
not scrutinized by eyes alone,
each of us seperately
plucked up by tweezers in the end?

Or maybe it's more like this:
No interference?
The changes occur on their own
according to plan?
The graph's needle slowly etches
its predictable zigzags?

Maybe thus far we aren't of much interest?
The control monitors aren't usually plugged in?
Only for wars, preferably large ones,
for the odd ascent above our clump of Earth,
for major migrations from point A to B?

Maybe just the opposite:
They've got a taste for trivia up there?
Look! on the big screen a little girl
is sewing a button on her sleeve.
The radar shrieks,
the staff comes at a run.
What a darling little being
with its tiny heart beating inside it!
How sweet, its solemn
threading of the needle!
Someone cries enraptured;
Get the Boss,
tell him he's got to see this for himself!