Gateway Part 5
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Contest Judge
from the Tao Te Ching
5. Use All Things
Zigzag stone creek, flowing with leaves.
The rust, the faded browns, the grey undersides
come back to this stillness in migration.
The bright blue, saturated in the way of November,
fills everything. Light on stem, stem on sky.
What moves?
Who turns the dial of time from outside time?
“Know the male but keep to the
female.
Know the white, but keep to the black.”
An acorn drops, then another. The yearning
to live rains down. The packrat rumbles
below the deck. The surprise wind trips
sound, leaf on leaf, the paper of life
loosened and off to wherever it goes.
To use all things means to lose all things,
but also to keep whatever's lost.
Editor’s Note: The Poet’s Notes for “Gateway” may be found in the introduction to the
first part of this ten part poem http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2016/08/special-feature-gateway-part-1-by-caryn.html.
“Gateway” was previously published in The Midwest Review.
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