Special Feature: "Gateway Part 9" by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Contest Judge

Gateway Part 9

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Contest Judge

from the Tao Te Ching

9. What is rooted is easy to nourish

Let's not beg for rain or turn away from the drought

but lift our hands to touch the real: the clay of the garden

that barely comes apart, the stones in the wrong place,

the rain that comes with too much force.

Let's plant our feet on the porch planks,

on the cement of the sidewalk, on the gravel

of the driveway, on the stubble among sunflowers

collapsing of their own weight.

Let's walk to remember how rooted the sky is,

and how we are made of 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.