Special Feature: "Gateway Part 4" by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Contest Judge

Gateway Part 4

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Contest Judge

from the Tao Te Ching

4. It is hidden but always present/ I don't know who gave birth to it/ It is older than God

Where have you gone?
The old friend, vanished

but down the road. The soft mud

hardened under April snow.

In the field, a confused ground squirrel.

In the sky, no big blue heron.

I walk the cobblestone between sleep and work,

the dreaming air sharp and clean with memory.

Stepping in the center of what's next,

the earth that's been here before it was named so,

catches me.

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.