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The Weight of Nothing

By Amy Uyematsu b. 1947 Amy Uyematsu

                      to end with nothing is something
                              Suvan Geer

                      or to rephrase a popular Billy Preston song,
                      “somethin’ from nothin’ is somethin’”

everyone loves

the disappearing

coin. a bird pulled from

an empty hat. the comfort of

trusting a magician’s hands.

when we know we’ll get some-

thing from what

he takes away.

the student’s assignment—

concentrate on nothing

for fifteen minutes a day.

she tries to empty her head

but can’t figure out how.

after all, she doesn’t know what

nothing sounds or looks like,

and the teacher won’t give

the slightest clue. yet

she’s got a good hunch

the exercise might quiet

all that shriek and clatter

trapped between her ears.

so like a good pupil,

she devotes an entire year

searching for nothing.

some days she’s as still

as a stone, but can’t

escape the distractions

of river and wind,

footsteps approaching,

birds calling in the trees

overhead. or closing

her eyes, she’ll focus

on a cloudless blue sky.

pillows and planes and purple

sunsets keep interrupting.

she silently repeats words

like ocean or why,

chants sounds that dwell

low in her throat

like maah and uhmm.

at year’s end her teacher

asks if she’s found nothing.

she tells him she’s found

everything but nothing.

he smiles, you’re closer

than you think. now

try for twenty minutes.

III

we’ve all seen them—

looking at their empty

outstretched palms,

and we’re fooled, thinking

about what isn’t there.

sighing, they marvel

at all they’ve held in those hands,

their history revealed

in the thickened joints,

the full weight of their desire—

even now, incredible

hands still opening

and grasping

when there’s nothing to keep.

without my friend Nothing

on the page, I’d never have to write

another poem. but Nothing waits

here, waving me on, inviting me

to rap and rant, pray sing, testify

what is, was, could, and always will be.

I greet all that’s coming,

contained as sheer breath

into word, born

to crave and engrave the emptiness

that Nothing can’t stop giving.

Amy Uyematsu, “The Weight of Nothing” from Stone Bow Prayer. Copyright © 2005 by Amy Uyematsu. Reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press. www.coppercanyonpress.org

Source: Stone Bow Prayer (Copper Canyon Press, 2005)

Biography

Poet Amy Uyematsu was raised in southern California by parents who had been interned in American camps during World War II. She earned her undergraduate degree in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Uyematsu’s poems consider the intersection of politics, mathematics, spirituality, and the natural world. She is the author of several poetry collections, including Stone Bow Prayer (2005), Nights of Fire, . . .

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