Hold to the Center
What shines here? The rain that falls
from what’s lost but still searches for itself?
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
moving. I can’t see the sun
that knits all to earth’s center,
but I know it’s there just as I know
the way my shoulders drop,
my jaw softens, my eyes close
in the fresh hold of the forgiving sky.
This poem steals a line—“Hold to the center”—from the Tao te Ching. Take any spiritual or poetry text that speaks to you soul, turn to a line that jumps out at you with meaning, and start writing!
Beginning a writing practice? Getting started, ground rules to free you, and podcasts of other writing prompts. Visit Caryn’s Write From Your Life page (https://carynmirriamgoldberg.wordpress.com/write-from-your-life/)