The Virtues of Subtraction

 

“Make very little of yourself if you wish

to see clearly. Shut up, deeply, if you

wish to hear. Stop your preening and

disclaiming. Pour your bottles of

perfume into the dirt.” ~Lewis Hyde

(On Butterfly Hunting)

 

i

Lord, let me be content

to be small.

There’s virtue in the lowly.

Consider the violet, ant, pebble,

every abandoned leaf.

The sky bows down

to uphold them all.

 

Let me strive to be silent

that I might hear

the cumulus clouds

accumulating,

to know

the bounties that flow

ever downward,

or comprehend how

a seed births a self.

 

Think of the trees

reaching every which way

for an answer

when what’s true

lies in the asking.

 

ii

A part of me fell away today,

falling from my mouth;

a memory dislodged

from a tipsy sentiment.

How I am

to live without it

is beside the point,

sublimity being achieved

not by adding more

but by taking away.

 

What is the labor

required to return

me to my 

nakedness?

 

 

iii

If you can’t visit paradise

without putting down your bags

then you will never be

an adventurer, a traveler, or journeyman.

You will only be a tourist

because you put yourself first

and can’t put yourself down.

You encircle everything

by building a wall

between you and it

with your requirements,

minutiae, mind's detritus,

your self-importance.

Learn to put yourself aside

for the sake of being present,

in order to connect,

in order to take part,

otherwise no matter

where you go

you won’t be here or there.

 

If happiness is no more

than a beautiful moment;

beautiful moments

are everywhere.

To arrive there,

prune away your

anticipation and frustration;

impatience with those you love,

jealousy toward a friend,

anger at your family.

Learn to take away

until there is nothing

left to remove.

 

What is left?

Only an action.

You are in it,

whether in art, or sport, or in love,

with clarity, intensity and solidity.

You adjust quickly and deftly.

No longer bound by addition.

You are free to act.

 

10/1/23