Second Place in The Political Poet Poetry Competition

Buddha

The ghost, the pine, the quarter moon

fading. The hay sits like a still life

waiting.  Blue surrounds the figure

seated on the hill, wrapped

in sky and earth.  The dearth

of crickets rides with dawn. 

The sky is teal over auburn hills

over olive grass beneath sandy

hay beneath Buddha within breath.

Out of time means nothing

but time.  Space is no-space

within which to let breath

go, swirling to the ends

of the fuzzy image and beyond

to the impartial whiteness

that is the true universe.

Versed in hills and hay yet

outside of them is how we reach

stars without grasping, without gasping

at their enormity.

We can touch the night, we touch

the night, we the night

and sitting outside of it.

by Taunja Thomson

About the Author Taunja Thompson

Taunja Thomson's poetry has been published in The Cincinnati Poetry Review, The Cincinnati Poets’ Collective and, most recently, in The Licking River Review. Additionally, she won the poetry category of Northern Kentucky University’s Women’s Studies Creative Writing Competition in 2003, and her poem “Seahorse and Moon” was nominated for a Pushcart Award in 2005. Taunja currently lives in Kentucky with her husband and four cats and maintains her poetry blog, Beneath Cherry Blossoms.