Emptiness

Emptiness

I’ve heard yogis talk of a divine
emptiness
the body free of its base desires,

some coiled and luminous god
in all of us
waiting to be discovered…

And always I’ve pivoted

followed Blake’s road of excess
to the same source
and know how it feels to achieve

nothing, the nothing that exists
after accomplishment.
And I’ve known the emptiness

of nothing to say, no reason to move,
those mornings I’ve built
a little cocoon with the bedcovers

and lived in it, almost happily,
because what fools
the body more than warmth?

And more than once

I’ve shared an emptiness with someone
and learned
how generous I can be—here,

take this, take this…


Stephen Dunn

Posted over on Poetaphobia