Two Types of Emptiness

author's note:

Please excuse the "primitive" recording of this poem (at the bottom of this post)...

I try to make up in sincerity what I lack in technology.


TWO TYPES OF EMPTINESS

I have experienced
two types of emptiness--

blank exhaustion
with all its dead air

and the blankness of clarity
with its wide-open freshness--

so different the pair
and yet the first
can sometimes lead
to the second:

after fighting with myself
to release an old argument
held in the fist of a grip
I'll surrender in exhaustion--

so blank...so mute...so empty.

But at such times
though I feel so weak
the smoke may die
and in the break, I will see
the brilliant blue sky of peace

before the ground fog gathers again.

These brief respites
both lift me with hope
and heighten my frustration:

as a result, afterwards
I'm even more motivated
to work my way out--

to keep on battling
to give up
that which I so stubbornly
work to protect.


© 2014, Michael R. Patton
myth steps