THE PRICE OF NOTHING
What could be more valuable
than nothing? The nothing that
frames “The Thinker,” the nothing
that holds every bowl,
every vase, every bust, every thought.
Let others buy the clay, the steel,
the papier-mâché. I will be satisfied
with nothing more than nothing.
Nothing pleases me. Nothing
enchants me. Nothing,
as Heisenberg says,
has a weight. Just think
of the space here beside me
where you are not.
If someone asks me why
I have a five-by-five-foot
empty space taped off in my home
with plaque that says I Am,
it is because I am so in love
with nothing. Imagine it—
nothing, the color of happiness,
nothing, the size of love,
nothing, the shape of god.
—from Poets Respond
June 13, 2021
__________
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: “I have long had a love affair with nothing—and so it was that when my friend Holiday Mathis sent me this article about an Italian sculptor who sold an ‘immaterial sculpture’ for over $18,000, well, it thrilled me. It’s so absurd. I have honored it with a wordless poem now featured in an invisible book on my shelves which you can buy for only $10,000 (OBO)—and with this poem, too.” (web)
