Categories: Pyramid Poetry

Tao Teh Ching #34

#34

The Great Tao is universal like a flood.
How can it be turned to the right or the left?

All creatures depend on it.
And it denies nothing to anyone.

It does its work,
But it makes no claims for itself.

It clothes and feeds all,
But it does not lord it over them:
Thus, it may be called “the Little.”

All things return to it as their home,
But it does not lord it over them:
Thus, it may be called “the Great.”

It is just because it does not wish to be great
That its greatness is fully realized.

Originally appeared in: June 1992