Skip to content
Inquiring Mind
Inquiring Mind
  • Home
  • Issues
  • Contributors
    • Writers
    • Interviewees
    • Artists
  • Contents
  • Topics
  • About
    • History
    • Masthead
    • Copyright and Permissions
    • Mailing List / Privacy
    • FAQ
  • Donate
Search for:
Your Support Makes Inquiring Mind Possible
Demons & Dharma
Fall 2012   Vol. 29 #1
Fall 2012   Vol. 29 #1

Poems/Not Poems

So Much Happens

By Judith Stronach

 
 

 

on the line between shadow and sun

on the deck, at the bedroom door,

before the steps, before the smell of lavender,

when the bee flies horizontal

at the top of the step before you step

onto stone and go to gate,

long before the gate, just at the beginning

past the bedroom door, at that line of shade

when you pass from indoors to outside,

from green boards to sun-bleached wood,

from any moment to the next,

you could stay a long time there

standing still on an edge

that becomes a place

just to see what happens

how green comes and goes in the grass

during that line between light and dark

how even the division of your body

if you let our attention be complete

could prove to be very unexpected.

 

 


 

From the Fall 2012 issue of Inquiring Mind (Vol. 29, No. 1)
Originally published in Two Summers, © Judith Stronach, (J.L. Stronach,1995). Used by permission.

Author

Judith Stronach (1943–2002) was a journalist, poet, arts patron and social activist. A leader in numerous human rights and peace organizations as well as Buddhist groups, she was also a great friend to Inquiring Mind and served as poetry editor for the past few years. She established the Stronach Prize for Poetry at the University of California, Berkeley, awarded annually to an undergraduate student who had surmounted obstacles to return to school. She is greatly missed.

Author

Judith Stronach (1943–2002) was a journalist, poet, arts patron and social activist. A leader in numerous human rights and peace organizations as well as Buddhist groups, she was also a great friend to Inquiring Mind and served as poetry editor for the past few years. She established the Stronach Prize for Poetry at the University of California, Berkeley, awarded annually to an undergraduate student who had surmounted obstacles to return to school. She is greatly missed.

 
 
Your Support Makes this Archive Possible
 
 
 
© Copyright 1984-2023. All rights reserved.
Sati Center for Buddhist Studies