"I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom. I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients." Gustave Courbet

25 August 2011

Am.


A path through the forest
is merely where the trees aren’t:
a clearing or absence.
What is it? Where is it?
These are not exactly the right questions;
it is an absence in space
that is also the way you are going.
It is surrounded by trees;
if it had a nature, that would be it:
the stuff all around it that touches
and shapes the emptiness within it.
But that’s where you move, isn’t it?
That’s how and where you go.
It is a useful emptiness, an effective absence.
You’ve never left it, even if you think you have,
and everything you’ve seen, you’ve seen from it.
I know it because here I am.


- Crispin Sartwell

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