Shimmering

What Naoki Sanjugo

Wrote about the game of Go

Has cosmic application—

If one chooses to look on

Go as valueless, it is.

If choosing to look on it

As a thing of value, then

A thing of value it is.

But this is not true of games

Alone. Paradoxical

And arbitrary as games

Must be, they, for that reason

Throw into relief what all

Value and meaning must be,

The attributes created

By the human observer.

(We spell out human only

As we know of no other

Entity making meaning,

Yet.) Humans manufacture

Meaning in ways that humans

Themselves can’t quite understand,

Perhaps since meaning only

Arises from attention,

Perhaps since, if meaning must

Come from them, it’s not meaning,

Can’t be meaningful enough,

So that, on self-reflection,

Its bubble has to collapse.

Or perhaps, as meaning is

As paradoxical and

Arbitrary as any

Game, then if one sees meaning

As of absolute value,

Meaning is, and if one sees

Meaning valueless, it is.