Beginner's Tai Chi

Things are made of other things
and make up other things.
It is only this simple chemistry
I understand.
And when I part the horse's mane
and the white crane spreads its wings,
even that, they say, may fall away from me.
I am not fluent in the world
and sometimes, I admit,
it seems better not to be.
But along with abdication
comes a lesson in humility
and an inkling, in a silent pose,
that little knowledge is not always liability.

December 10 2012