Gateway Part 2
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Contest Judge
from the Tao Te Ching
2. When her work is done, she forgets it/ That is why it lasts
forever
What is "forever"?
The shaking of cedar limbs.
The shaking of cedar limbs.
The sun skinning the bare branches.
The white fence plank peeling and crooked.
The worn dirt between house and car.
Are these forever a kind of work?
Or is it undetectable motion of seasonal shifts?
Or is it undetectable motion of seasonal shifts?
Is time a kind of forever, an angry river
breaking new ground from itself to survive?
I walk from this room to the wide field
I walk from this room to the wide field
shadowed in melting snow and strong snow,
the revealed dirt edging into mossy hope,
the snowdrops clinging to the edge of a building,
the sky's work long forgotten
but its sheen everything to us.
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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