The Poets Corner: Parallel Journeys

My friends are traveling

to Europe, China, and Vietnam

while I sit here at the kitchen table

as I have done each day

for so many years.

The travelers stand in groups

gazing upward

at stained glass windows

and the marbled agonies of Christ

I look out across a garden

surrounded by woodland trees,

close-set and reaching for the sun.

The wayfarers visit temples

and study the passive countenance

of Buddhas.

I stay at home

and contemplate the field

that in my lifetime

has become a forest.

In ancient monuments,

my traveling friends seek beauty

and answers to the question

of who we are

while I watch the trees grow

and search within for

that glimmer of transcendent light.

--by Sydney Eddison, from Where We Walk (Pomperaug Valley Press)

Sydney does yoga in her garden and at her kitchen table just outside

of New York City

#stories #opinion