{"id":1138,"date":"2026-04-13T01:54:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T01:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=1138"},"modified":"2026-04-14T00:25:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:25:57","slug":"high-low-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=1138","title":{"rendered":"High-Low (Revisited)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
We're living through the
best-worst, worst-best of times.
A tale of two psyches; 
Charles Dickens could never.

We're stuck 
in High-Low gear.
We're wedged in 
Ultimate Extreme mode.

We've just collectively 
experienced the unfathomable. 
Four magnificent humans,
on behalf of all countries and cultures,
were above Us, careening 
through the dark expanse
of our solar system in 
the pursuit of Science and Civility.

While there, they crafted 
poignant pose and 
framed breath-taking stills
of our 'blue boat' of a planet. 

In their photos they captured: 
the Earthrise
     our Moon Joy
             the Dark Side 
                            and All of Us. 

In those same 
high-resolution images,
\u2014 ones that provoke awe
and tears and tight throats 
and wide eyes \u2014
painted in those pixels
are the world's
smallest-minded egoists.

The ones who hate more than heal.
The crushers of community and 
idealizers of isolation.
The destroyers of decency.

Those astronauts were Up
documenting the galaxy, 
naming luminous craters
on Our Moon for their departed:
\"C-A-R-R-O-L-L, that's two 'Ls.'\"
Writing their loved one's names
into the fabric of our universe.

And yet, far, far Down,
below on Earth:
We people within the pixels
stood on the sidelines
as titans crashed and postured.
Threatening to end humanity
as we know it, \"civilization.\"
And for what? 
Co-signed by whom?

When Artemis II crew landed,
they did so with grace,
unsullied by 
the mess of Earthlings.

The crew shared nothing 
but gratitude and humility
and a wonder for life
and the possible with Us.
And, they emphasized, Love.

Their Joy Train \u2014 
what they call the mentality 
of mining joy from every incident,
surprise, event and obstacle \u2014
can hitch up even more train cars.

They displayed a closeness 
and a deep comfort 
with one another 
and with our planet 
that few, if any, of 
the rest of us may ever know.

If only all humans 
could be like them.

Instead, we are 
caught in the cogs,
grinding between widgets:
War! and Peace! 
Grift! and Gratitude! 
Conflict! and Curiosity!
Scarcity! and Abundance!
Hate! and Hope!

It's no mystery why Us, 
the gravity-laden peoples,
are ensnared, ebbing in circles.
We've lost our True North, 
our internal gyroscopes.

So many years now, we've
been locked in High-Low,
blood pressure spiking, 
trust dwindling, fear rising,
ripping ourselves apart.

And to think:
we could've had the stars.<\/em>

But now, a glimmer, 
an ember, a flame:
we know now, that 
we can<\/em> have good things.

And we now know:
The Moon is real.
The Earth is round.
Humanity is inherently good.
And Hope is eternal.

Rise up. Align with Integrity.
Hunt for the Good out here.
Protect and nurture our children.
Break free of the Universal spin cycle
and make a hard turn into the light.






<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cHigh-Low (Revisited),\u201d a testament to the head-spinning contradictions in our realities. Written April 13, poem 103 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. “High-Low,” the Integrity Orion capsule splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, Friday April 10, 2026. Live stream by NASA, still by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,290,2],"tags":[68,635,630,441,506,621,623,638,629,620,616,625,292,615,622,626,627,617,388,220,124,464,201,531,639,119,456,637,618,632,275,634,633,636,631,514,628],"class_list":["post-1138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-homage","category-poems","tag-abundance","tag-all-of-us","tag-allusion","tag-april","tag-artemis-ii","tag-astronauts","tag-blue-boat","tag-carroll","tag-charles-dickens","tag-civility","tag-civilization","tag-craters","tag-culture","tag-earth","tag-earthrise","tag-galaxy","tag-grace","tag-hate","tag-high-low","tag-homage","tag-hope","tag-humanity","tag-humility","tag-integrity","tag-joy-train","tag-love","tag-moon","tag-moon-joy","tag-rise","tag-scarcity","tag-science","tag-spin-cycle","tag-stars","tag-the-dark-side","tag-ultimate-extreme","tag-universe","tag-wonder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1138"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1175,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138\/revisions\/1175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}