A pool of water on a God still day,
A reflection of a heavenly sky,
A perfect, empty circle divine,
A balancing act at the centre point,
A substance which neither holds nor is held,
A vessel that neither pours nor needs filling,
Now it is lost in the background plane,
For it has no Name nor eminence,
Now it steps forward to perform with grace,
Like a ballerina stretched with tendons of steel,
Like a hidden hand that can reach within,
Flowing and beating and sensing itself,
Deep within this recess a new form stirs,
For in this pallette of reality existent,
Are the many colours, the many shades,
All those you have copied are now well worn,
And from this panoply, this splashed out craze,
Comes forth this shining example,
The All of You in the All of Now.
(After a few postings that were a little darker in spirit, I wanted to return to a theme of potential with this poem. The first lines are representations of stillness and balance. The 'perfect, empty circle divine' is a reference to the t'ai chi symbol 'wu chi' - see http://www.ichingwisdom.com/intro.html . 'Wu chi' is pure attention, zero emptiness, corresponding to deep sleep. It is the stillness that precedes movement, the unity that precedes the separation into 'yin' and 'yang'. It is the pregnancy that precedes creation - 'deep within this recess a new form stirs'. And then this latent, hidden potential leaps forward, announces itself amongst the current ,worn out reality, this 'splashed out craze'. Something new is born - the 'all of you in the all of now'. Presence.)
