Everything and nothing
I am.
Now I am mostly me –
but also a bit of thee –
for, yes, I’ve learned
I’ll be different when around you
(or you) (or you)...
....and that I’m everything I’ve ever seen –
every place I’ve ever been
every thought I’ve ever had
every good and every bad...
...n’ all the crap I’ve ever owned
or coveted
or mocked
or feared...
...and everyone I’ve ever loved –
and haven’t –
and who’s loved me –
or not.
You can’t separate
the person from the place,
the smile from the face,
nor myth from fact,
nor thot from act.
And however much
we might wish it were not so,
for us, virtue requires
the notion of bad –
while happy’s bearings lie
in being different from sad.
We savor youth
...because...
we age.
And sadly,
only anger lets us know
content from rage...
Is it gratitude we lack
more than gravitas?
No matter –
We are what we are...
And for humans,
every yin will have its yang.
Moreover, death,
death’s the coda,
giving context, urgency
and juice
to life –
just as peace wouldn’t be a tenth as valued
in a world that’d never known strife.
Everything and nothing
We are.
Everything and nothing.
We need
everything.
We.. ..need....
......nothing...
–Jim Keller
Sep 19, 2004
© 2005 J. Keller
All rights reserved. World Rights Reserved.
1 comment:
This has more or less been my "signature" performance piece for over a year now.
Within a fairly accessible and straight-forward poem, I tried to combine elements from Zen, modern psychology, the personality theories of Jung and Harry Stack Sullivan -- with a slug of metaphysical dualism thrown in for good measure -- to talk about our simultaneous connection to and isolation from everyone and everything.
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