-- The Beauty of Emptiness --

John Herlihy

The beauty of emptiness lies in its fullness,

Empty the gourd and the gourd is still full.

Full of potential that makes it seem empty,

What can be so empty with so much plenty.

Emptiness will boast of its wide-open spaces,

Nothing else can claim such free-range places.

Plentiful, indeed, the ambiguity of emptiness,

Only wonder invades such open peacefulness.

Volumes left unstated in what could emerge,

What is the blessing such emptiness to purge.

Even when you fill the void, emptiness remains,

Moonlight hardly fills what darkness contains.

I patiently await all my emptiness to speedily fill,

Or better yet, remain perfectly empty, quiet still.

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(c) John Herlihy 22 May 2020