Dublin Poetry Magazine - "Humanity" by Lorraine Ryan

Dublin Poetry Magazine –

"Humanity" by Lorraine Ryan

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May 15th, 2026

Humanity

by Lorraine Ryan

They said, learn all the human skills.
But no one warned me that to be human is to be a constellation –
stitched together by longing, by fractured light.
That every breath we take is a flicker in the dark,
a signal cast out into the void, hoping, always hoping, to be mirrored.

Being human is a language spoken in pulses –
the quiet thrum beneath our ribs,
the invisible electricity that crackles when your eyes meet someone else's,
and beneath their skin, you both carry the same ache.

Still, we try to measure it.
Wrap names around the unnameable.
Call it retrograde when hearts slip out of rhythm,
blame Venus for the hollow lodged deep in our chests.

But maybe it's not the planets.
Maybe it's just the static hum of being alive.
The weight of a soul that remembers where it came from, but not how to return.

You see –
we are born of collapse.
Of stars that died screaming light into the universe,
and that light, somehow, it found its way into us.

Now we walk around carrying galaxies behind our eyes,
pretending we don't feel everything.

But we do.

We feel it when someone's energy shifts the room,
when grief arrives without a sound,
when joy bursts like a supernova from a laugh.

We are tuning forks –
vibrating with each other,
absorbing and deflecting,
carrying burdens not our own,
because sometimes love means becoming a lighthouse,
even when you're barely a matchstick flickering against the storm.

They said, learn all the human skills.
But no one taught me how to witness another's unraveling
without unraveling myself.
How to love fiercely
without losing the shape of my own soul.
How to hold space
without turning it into a cage.

Still – this is the miracle:
we do it anyway.

We hurt and heal,
and hurt again.
We forgive.
We speak.
We tremble.
We dance with frequencies that have no name.

We find those whose souls move like ours
just a little off-beat, just a little too loud
and we say yes.
Stay.

Because being human is hard.
Energy doesn't lie.

If you've ever felt the warmth of someone's truth
before they spoke it aloud,
if you've ever walked into a room
and known who carried silence as a secret grief,

then you already know:

This isn't about planets.
It's about presence.

We are not meant to be perfect.
We are meant to be electric –
honest,
light-filled,
trembling,
and real.

The stars don't need to align –
we do.

About the Poet
Lorraine Ryan resides in Tubbercurry, County Sligo, Ireland.
Read the poet's biography and Wax Poetry and Art publications on Lorraine Ryan's Artist Page.

This poem is also featured in Comet #8, published in the Wax Poetry and Art Library.

Keywords: humans, perfection, stars aligning

Previously published in Dublin Poetry Magazine:
The Square Mile
by Maria Beville

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