When the pandemic arrived this spring and threw us into rapid change, we scrambled to put Free Minds classes online. Our first night back in a virtual format, we wanted to offer some space for students to process the intense time we’d found ourselves in. As creative writing instructor, I set about finding a poem to guide us. I flipped through the usual sources, struggling to find what would speak to the moment. Then I pulled Ellen Bass’s Like a Beggar from the shelf and came upon “The World Has Need of You.” It was the right poem for that evening and the months to come.
“It’s a hard time to be human. We know too much
and too little.”
