Still Life with Silence
Not two, but one,
invisible
and stretched between
stump and fence,
filled with
time, defining
implication. Empty
the pitcher. Accept
its limitations.
Listen to what is not.
O at the Edges
Musings on poetry, language, perception, numbers, food, and anything else that slips through the cracks.
O at the Edges 
Poets eh… they want to express stillness with flow a timelessness within the bounds of time a silence with words that may be uttered. a good many of us are guilty, are we not? yet it must persist to branch into the difficult to artify or else whatever would we do? drink tipples n’ say beautiful things we don’t really mean? heaven forbid.
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Yes, poets, damn them!
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stump & milk
pitcher make
insightful poetry 🙂
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Stumps can be quite garrulous!
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what is not
the tree before the stump
the field before the fence
the smell before the taste
the silence before the words
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This is a lovely koan, Ken.
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Thank you for such high praise, Bob.
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Just speaking the truth, Ken.
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I enjoyed the poem. ^_^
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Thanks very much.
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Form is emptiness……
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But it’s not nothing.
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…Emptiness is also form.
Form is no other than emptiness.
Emptiness is no other than form.
—Heart Sutra
The pitcher and its contents are, in essence, the same. And different. And not nothing.
😉
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A fine distinction.
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Really liked this !
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So glad you did. Thank you.
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“Listen to what is not”. Masterful. Thanks!
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Thank you!
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Yes, this line is absolutely Yoda-like. Actually, better than Yoda. It is wise. Like something a prophet or an oracle might say, but I suppose that’s what poets are, eh? Prophets and oracles.
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Prophets, oracles, dishwashers, mowers of lawns… 🙂
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