Leona Patrick

Nothing


Mind of mine, where do you go?
Cease your aimless wanderings,
your crazed contradictions.

Like the spokes of a wheel,
you spin round and round.
The hub, a still center,
the five senses, rims treading ground.

Spiral inward to the center, 
find peace at the core,
the soft lyrics of a tune, 
waves lapping on the shore.

And spin off wasteful fears 
that enough is not enough,
delusions that stuff is made of stuff 
other than stuff,
and the assumption 
that Nothing is Nothing.

In striving to make 
Nothing into something more,
in my fruitless haste, 
I opened up the door
to faulty assumptions 
that to my great dismay,
led me to reject Nothing. 
I threw Nothing away.
 
But Persistence and I were determined to win.
We went to the mat, and we tried it again.
It took awhile, but we centered back down.
Nothing stared back and here’s what we found,
in the the words of Nothing:

Forget your contradictions. 
Say ’Yes’ to your soul.
Don’t shred your dreams
before you reach your goal.
Don’t try to make something out of me.
I am you, who you are meant to be.

Your attempts to control me 
only come to naught.
Surrender fickle ego 
and empty every thought.
Make room for me 
to manifest through you.
Claim the glory of your Nothingness
and you will know that this is true.


I stared squarely into the maw of Nothing. I confronted the void.
Suddenly Love surrounded me like I never before knew it could.

Mind tries again to fool me, 
jealous little hack.
But to the wayward child, 
I now speak back:

Cease your silly meanderings,
you crazed little mind,
and in silence claim the glory
that in simple being you will find.


© 2020, All rights reserved, Patricia Leone