All That's Here Poem by Duy Bui

The sun descends in the evening,
And carries us into a new threshold,
Leaving the dimmer self behind;
The moon, a candle for the vigilant mind.

Then in the absence of this watchful moon,
Darkness gives shadow to the sleepless.
Oh, those dark nights; the slightest star,
Was the whetted blade that sliced the eyes.

What I’ve learned under ample light
Is small compared to the darkness,
In its companionship has taught me.
Hollowness embodied all the unseen.

Darkness, external light was omitted,
Thus to bear a generosity;
And in the crickets’ chant, is set free
Over grassy fields, while the grasses grow.

On countless silent walks at night,
With ears I surveyed the trees and the grasses,
I never have heard them grow or speak.
And yet I know this is what they do well; in time

We too, grow in its single witness.
What existed once was taken away,
Perpetuity, gone to a far distant land.
I hold what is here, and hope it aspires not to fly.