When I Drop the Stubbornness
All day I practice
noticing the space
between us, feeling
the subtle tugs, the
repulsions, the charge,
the release. Sometimes
I forget to let it happen,
try to force a nearness or
a solitude. That is when
I can feel it, how real
the space is, almost as if
you are one and I am another
and the space between us
is a third. I have noticed
that when you and I,
at the same time, allow
ourselves to lean—
is that the right word?—
perhaps it is more that we
open to that space,
then I notice how easy it is
to be for each other
as the water is for the moon,
holding entirely without
holding at all, not changing
and utterly transformed.
As you conjure that space into a reality of its own, the poem takes a lovely turn toward recognizing the heart in each other. As the water is for the moon. That’s the line that tugs.