Zen Poetry...

If there is beauty, there must be ugliness;

If there is right, there must be wrong.

Wisdom and ignorance are complementary,
And illusion and enlightenment cannot be separated.

This is an old truth, don't think it was discovered recently.

"I want this, I want that"
Is nothing but foolishness.

I'll tell you a secret -

"All things are impermanent!".


- Ryokan

[From 'One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryokan'. Translated by John Stevens.]