Not opposite
Poles apart,
Nor contradictions:
Complementary continuums,
Spectrums growing from
And into one another.

There is no tall
Without something short
To be taller than,
Nothing is close
Without something far
To be closer than,
Nothing dark
Without a light
To be darker than,
No light
Without a shadow,
No up
Without a down
To be upward from,
No left
Without a right
To be to the left of.

The stairs that lead up
Also lead down,
The road that goes away
Will also bring you back again.

9/13/17

Written after reading Chapter II of the Dao De Ching. The image is the Yin Yang (from the Chinese 陰陽 (yīnyáng), literally: “dark-bright”, “negative-positive”