‘One is inside’ by R. D. Laing

One is inside

then outside what one has been inside

One feels empty

because there is nothing inside oneself

One tries to get inside oneself

        that inside of the outside

        that one was once inside

        once one tries to get oneself inside what

        one is outside:

        to eat and be eaten

to have the outside inside and to be

        inside the outside

But this is not enough. One is trying to get

the inside of what one is outside inside, and to

get inside the outside. But one does not get

inside the outside by getting the outside inside

for;

although one is full inside of the inside of the outside

one is on the outside of one’s inside

and by getting inside the outside

one remains empty because

while one is on the inside

even the inside of the outside is outside

and inside oneself there is still nothing

There has never been anything else

and there never will be

R. D. Laing, Knots (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1973), 83.