Formless Poetry -- writing the Tao

Chapter Thirty-Seven

(Tao Te Ching --- Tr. Gia-Fu Feng & Jane English)

Tao abides in non-action.
Yet nothing is left undone.
If kings and lords observed this,
The ten-thousand things would develop naturally.
If they still desired to act,
They would return to the simplicity of formless substance.
Without form there is no desire..
Without desire there is tranquility.
And in this way all things would be at peace.


(Commentary: Koon Woon) To write without straining oneself is not easy to do; yet the very act of straining oneself is not truly writing. To write in formal verse is difficult to do and for this reason, people strive to write in forms and adhere strictly to them. In this way, people rank themselves in a command. Those who are below envy those at the top and those at the top fear and pity those at the bottom. This is not the way to stability or peace.

So to be at peace is not to glorify in any unnatural order, no matter how grand and intricate are such edifices. To act without forethought cannot be first planned. Therefore let go of thought when one decides to act. Acting without desire is not acting without purpose. Best yet still to act merely because it is another
flow of the Tao. The Tao does not prefer this to that nor that to this. Those who know this work without doing and when less and less is done, form slows disappears, and in this way all co-exist peacefully.