poetry, quotes

sweet nothings

I’m writing a poem with some variations on the word “nothing.” Yes, this has been done before. Before, before, and before.

Romeo is banished; and all the world to nothing that he dares ne’er come back to challenge you; or if he do, it needs must be by stealth. Then, since the case so stands as now it doth, I think it best you marry with the county.
– Nurse, ROMEO AND JULIET
(By the way, there’s an old movie called All The World To Nothing, from 1918 – I was hoping to steal that title myself.)

Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.
– Lear, KING LEAR

Is whispering nothing?
Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses?
Kissing with inside lip? stopping the career
of laughing with a sigh? – a note infallible
Of breaking honesty? – horsing foot on foot?
Skulking in corners? wishing clocks more swift?
Hours, minutes? noon, midnight and all eyes
Blind with the pin and web but theirs, theirs only,
That would unseen be wicked? is this nothing?
Why, then the world and all that’s in’t is nothing;
The covering sky is nothing; Bohemia nothing;
My wife is nothing; nor nothing have these nothings,
If this be nothing.

– Leontes, THE WINTER’S TALE

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