Make something out of nothing. Justify
effort. Zero sum. Write a nil report
on emptiness with white clouds on blue sky.
Null and void substance. Abstractions of nought.
Make something out of nothing. Vacant plot
is fertile ground. Those yet to be employed
give vacuous answers to diddly squat?
No. Nothing’s wasted, dismissed or destroyed.
Make something out of nothing. Emphasise
oblivion’s negative force. Contrive
an essence that permeates emptiness.
New things from no things; from all things derive.
. Emptiness – surely it’s something of sorts.
. Needs invention through series of thoughts.

© Tim Grace, 28 October 2012

or…

Make something out of nothing, zero sum
the universe with far too many noughts.
Measure the emptiness of kingdom come;
biblical proportions in bleak reports.
Occupy heaven with a vacant stare;
a blank expression holds no depth of field.
Focus on oblivion … who’s to care
that eternity has its future sealed.
Porous impressions given a thin coat
of certainty beyond a lick of paint.
Into the distance we adopt remote
orbits; avoiding gravity’s restraint
. Exploring principles of uncertainty
. through the empty eyes of modernity.

© Tim Grace, 15 May 2016

To the reader: We have so many ways of describing the absence of anything else; from oblivion to nirvana. In oblivion, nothingness, like all else, has no value. In the vast void of oblivion’s estate all good purpose is lost; given to waste. Nirvana, on the other hand is a transcendental realm of nothingness. We reach ‘Nirvana’ through a heightened state of being; where upon, through the absence of all else, we find eternal happiness beyond the necessities of existence.

To the poet: “What’s nothing but the invention of nought” This sonnet is a far cry from the draft I wrote in October, 2012. In its original form, the text was strangled by internal reference to a poorly defined subject. Failure was somewhat understandable as the poem’s confused protagonist was nothing more than nothing. In the final version, I’ve stripped away the physical narrative to emphasise the transcendental phrasing … meaning on its way to nothingness.

Out of Nothing
Picture Source:
http://youtu.be/A1evxMA7yYw