our tea cools
in untouched cups
we speak of gravity

the fall of an apple
stirs his mind
the weight of words

an unseen force
not to the side not upwards
but straight down

a cosmic pull
in this moment of clarity
thought becomes truth

Paul Conneally
14th March 2025

These lines were written whilst taking tea with Sir Isaac Newton under the famous apple tree where he began to ponder the mysteries of why things fall. Gravity. The same apple tree is still there and still fruiting. It’s at Woolsthorpe Manor, Newton’s birthplace and where he did the majority of his scientific thinking and work when a young man.