Poetry Monday: Easy by nature

Easy by nature

 True goodness

 is like water. 

Water’s good

 for everything.

 It doesn’t compete.

 It goes right

 to the low loathsome places, 

and so finds the way. 

 For a house,

 the good thing is level ground.

 In thinking,

 depth is good. 

The good of giving is magnanimity;

 of speaking, honesty;

 of government, order.

 The good of work is skill,

 and of action, timing. 

 No competition,

 so no blame. 

 Ursula K. LeGuin’s version of No. 8, Tao Te Ching