Taoist Musings: Understanding

I came across Paul Ziff’s book titled Understanding Understanding, which was so inspiring that it expelled from me, or rather, it compelled my fingers to type two poems, both by the name “Understanding”:

Understanding Understanding by Paul Ziff.
Understanding Understanding Understanding
Understanding Understanding Understanding by Paul Ziff
By Paul ZIff.
Understanding Understranding Understanding by
Pol Ziph

By Ainsley Sebastien Sawyer and Montgomery Evelyn Bullingsworth

Stand with a string attached to your crown
And a stick up your butt
And read Ziff’s Understanding Understanding
(unwitfully put ‘Understanding An Understanding,’
But we can’t have that)– so
Understand Understanding Understanding–
And Write Understanding Understanding Understanding
Or rather title it Understanding Understanding
Understanding Undrestanding,
As to what this means, it’s inconceivable– too meta.
But at least
Understand this stand for Understanding Understanding
Understanding Understanding and so on and so forth.

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Loc Ho

Loc Ho was assistant coach, team captain, and boxed at 139 lbs, 132 lbs, and 125 lbs for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s boxing team from 2016-2019. He has trained hundreds of novices and seasoned athletes and created the program’s year-long training curriculum that has taken complete beginners to elite collegiate competitors. With Loc as assistant coach for three years, the program placed six athletes regionally and nationally, including the program’s first men’s national champion at 119 lbs and a national runner-up at 195 lbs. Loc is currently studying law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

3 thoughts on “Taoist Musings: Understanding”

    1. My brother and I tried to capture why the title of Understanding Understanding, a book written by Ziff, was humorous. Part of our feelings toward this was that the title is a bit contrived and that it could’ve been more clearly put instead of (what Ziff may have thought) witty. So, I think what you took away from this poem is part of what was captured when my brother and I wrote these poems.

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