Special Feature: "Gateway Part 6" by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Contest Judge

Gateway Part 6

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Contest Judge

from the Tao Te Ching

6. Hold to the Center

What shines here? The rain

that falls from what's lost?
The sleeping coyote in the den?

The window shade half exhaled?
The awning where ice melts?

I walk into the outside,

my long thought dissolved.

Someone calls out, the hard bud

on the tip of one branch stops.

I don't know where the sun is

that knits all to earth's center.

I only know the way my shoulders drop,

my jaw softens, my eyes close

in the fresh hold of the forgiving sky.

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.