By-Name
"Its true name we do not know. Tao is the by-name that we give it." Tao Te Ching, Chapter XXV
Sealed with impermanence, shrouded in mystery,
we call those things which are and are not
by names we cannot pronounce,
like pillars that stand dripping with oil beneath
eternal staircases.
The lesser lays his head on desert, dreams of life,
sees a laddered tongue linking earth and heaven, telling
his story as it is; the word that he has lived by
is a scratch of syllables, a distant spelling on stretching stone,
the by-name breaking up until the word it was beside
knows fully and is known.
Caleb Hill is a cybersecurity technician by day, poet around the clock. He contributed to the monthly newsletter until they decided he was having too much fun and revoked his duties. He lives in central PA with the trees and his family.
Amethyst Review 