{"id":49041,"date":"2026-08-29T15:04:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T15:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/how-to-be-reborn-each-day\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T15:04:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T15:04:37","slug":"how-to-be-reborn-each-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/how-to-be-reborn-each-day\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Be Reborn Each Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cPlease try to go to hell frequently because you will find the light there.\u201d<\/h3>\n
\n

\"How<\/a><\/p>\n

In their strange cosmogony predating Copernicus by two millennia, the ancient Greek scientific sect of the Pythagoreans placed at the center of the universe a ball of fire. It was not hell but the heart of creation. Hell, Milton told us centuries and civilizations later, is something else, somewhere else: \u201cThe mind is its own place,\u201d he wrote in Paradise Lost<\/em><\/a>, \u201cand in it self can make a Heav\u2019n of Hell, a Hell of Heav\u2019n.\u201d <\/p>\n

Grief and despair, heartache and humiliation, rage and regret \u2014 this is the hellfire of the mind, hot as a nova, all-consuming as a black hole. And yet, if are courageous enough and awake enough to walk through it, in it we are annealed, forged stronger, reborn. <\/p>\n

That is what the non-speaking autistic poet Hannah Emerson<\/strong> celebrates in her shamanic poem \u201cCenter of the Universe,\u201d found in her extraordinary collection The Kissing of Kissing<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (public library<\/em><\/a>), song of the mind electric, great bellowing yes to life.<\/p>\n\n

\n

CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE<\/strong>
\nby Hannah Emerson<\/em><\/p>\n

Please try to go
\nto hell frequently
\nbecause you will
\nfind the light there<\/p>\n

yes yes \u2014 please
\ntry to kiss the ideas
\nthat you find there
\nyes yes \u2014 please<\/p>\n

try to get that
\nit is the center
\nof the universe
\nyes yes \u2014 please<\/p>\n

try to help yourself
\nby kissing the hot hot
\nhot life that is born
\nthere yes yes \u2014 please<\/p>\n

try to yell in hell
\nyes yes \u2014 please
\ntry to free yourself
\nby pouring yourself<\/p>\n

into the gutter all
\nguttural guttural yell
\nyes yes yes \u2014 please
\ntry to get that you<\/p>\n

become the being
\nthat you came there
\nto be yes yes \u2014 please
\ntry to go to the great<\/p>\n

great great fire that you
\ncreated because you
\nbecome the light
\nthat the fire makes<\/p>\n

inside of you
\nyes yes \u2014 please
\ntry to kiss yourself
\nfor going there<\/p>\n

yes yes \u2014 please
\nget that you are
\nreborn there
\nyes yes \u2014 please<\/p>\n

begin your day<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Drink in more soul-slaking poetry here<\/a>, then revisit the story of how Dostoyevsky, just after his death sentence was repealed, found himself \u201cregenerated into a new form\u2026 reborn for the better.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

donating = loving<\/h3>\n

For seventeen years, I have been spending hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars each month composing The Marginalian<\/em> (which bore the outgrown name Brain Pickings<\/em><\/a> for its first fifteen years). It has remained free and ad-free and alive thanks to patronage from readers. I have no staff, no interns, no assistant \u2014 a thoroughly one-woman labor of love that is also my life and my livelihood. If this labor makes your own life more livable in any way, please consider lending a helping hand with a donation<\/a>. Your support makes all the difference.<\/p>\n

\n

newsletter<\/h3>\n

The Marginalian<\/em> has a free weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week\u2019s most inspiring reading. Here\u2019s what to expect<\/a>. Like? Sign up.<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPlease try to go to hell frequently because you will find the light there.\u201d In their strange cosmogony predating Copernicus by two millennia, the ancient Greek scientific sect of the Pythagoreans placed at the center of the universe a ball of fire. It was not hell but the heart of creation. Hell, Milton told us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-life"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-25 12:55:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}