The Uses of Not

Thirty spokes meet
In the hub.
Where the wheel isn’t 
Is where it’s useful.

Hollowed out,
clay makes a pot. 
Where the pot’s not 
is where it’s useful.

Cut doors and windows 
to make a room.
 Where the room isn’t, 
there’s room for you.

So the profit in what is 
is in the use of what isn’t.

Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way

trans. Ursula K. LeGuin