Old Teacher
Lao Tzu wants to go;
he has had enough and he wants to go
to the mountains and to solitude
but they will not let him go

he arrives at the gates
and the gatekeeper says:
“Old Teacher,
you cannot go;
write all you know
then you can go”

“If I write,”
says Lao Tzu,
“you will make a text of it
though the description is never the thing”

and the gatekeeper says again :
“Old Teacher,
you cannot go;
write all you know
then you can go”


and Lao Tzu writes
so he can go;
and we have all these texts in the world
and cling on to words, words, words
thinking the description is the thing