Someone I Cared For

SOMEONE I CARED FOR
by Cid Corman from And the Word (Coffee House Press)

Someone I cared for
put it to me: Who
do you think you are?

I went down the list
of all the many
possibilities

carefully — did it
twice — but couldn't find
a plausible one.

That was when I knew
for the first time who
in fact I wasn't.


I think the power of negatives is often overlooked in our culture.  We are so keen to know what is that we often overlook the power that comes from knowing and accepting what is not. 

The path of the via negativa is the road I've been traveling lately.  I'm more inclined to take small, solid steps grounded in what is not, than the daring, chasm clearing leaps that require figuring out what is.  

Michelangelo said that when he approached a block of stone, he sensed the figure trapped inside.  His task as an artist was simply to remove anything that wasn't the man, the woman, the angel. 

Each time I accept what isn't and let it go, move me one step closer to freeing what is inside me.

What are the negatives . . . the nots, aren'ts, isn'ts that you know and accept?