Yin Yan Yen Yearn

If you are (you are, aren’t you)
You crave, you want, you don’t know
Why—could well be it’s just life

To yearn for more. There’s a trick,
The one true trick, the great stone,
And it’s not to get more life.

It’s to live and not want life,
To not want and yet to live,
To live and still to be still.

No one’s done it. No one’s sure
Why one should want it. To be
Sure, most give up on it, want

Less and less to not want more,
Give up on that goal and rest
Their sights on just more of more,

More life, more wealth, more health, more
Love, lust, praise, stuff, joy—just more.
You get death, or old age first

And then death. You can’t get more.
You can’t get less. You can’t get
To be and not want to be,

If you want more or just want
To just not be. To be, free,
You’d have to not want to want,

Not want to not want, not want
To be but be there to sense
Your lack of a sense of want,

Which makes no sense, lacks all sense,
And can’t be sensed. Just to be
And to know it. You want it.