A Little Bit of Philosophy

Through many things? There's not even one
Though all are bold, though the canopy of silence
Stretches out eternally -- no! Eternity is just the problem:

Take things in their immensity -- is theirs one
Flagrant all or a burning intensity of partless
Parts, swirling in a void neither proven

Nor reproof (because the void is nothing,
Nothing can exist, and so the void
Exists)? Let's redefine our terms:

Either there is, or there is not --
Now if there is, then there is,
And if there is not, then "is"

Is not. But if "is" is not,
Then it is, so "is" cannot
Not be. Now that we've clarified

Existence, time to move to existential,
The movement of being through time:
So though you see all things have the habit

Of motion, smokers never quit so quickly
Through a thought. Motion is impossible?
Enumerate the ways! As we proceed,

Be still. Now first, does motion imply
The many or the one? The many?
How could one not be?

We've been through that: so now suppose
Everything moves -- will it move
Faster or more slowly than itself? Again suppose

To move you must move half the distance
Where you started from to reach your destination:
Is it a lie to say that all things lie

Where they are, when first to reach a half
You must reach half of half, and half again
Of that, so motion never moves at all?

But how is it? -- you claim, -- Do we observe
That the race goes not to the swift,
Do the idle inherit the earth? Are you dizzy

In the eddying swirls of this rapid halt?
Don't you want to rest? When you exert
Your body over rugged rocks, aren't you glad to learn

There is no strain? That lifting heavy weights
Is equal to the motionless, serenity of silent
Meditation, a single thought

For a thousand feet? Now count the ways
That mortals multiply their mortal cares
By multiplying everything, when everything

Is one, and one is all: no motion, no gyration,
Desire, drive, and sex all rest, your cares
Are not your cares, your triumphs

Are a spinning dime, falling rapidly
Into itself, like the curving petals
Of a morning glory, unfolding.