Two-time U.S. Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin’s 1967 book of poetry “The Lice” is one of his most beloved bodies of work. This quote from one of the book’s poems, “Provision,” offers up a concept from Merwin’s Buddhist beliefs: absence becoming presence. In this philosophy, the lack of one thing enables the existence of another; to actively miss something creates a new metaphysical realm in which they can exist. Merwin’s poem reminds us not to be discouraged by what we lack: Instead, we should look for what it can reveal about the present.