The Threshold

by Sherry Weaver Smith

They say the thin place, the threshold

between this world and the next,

is where offered coins break

the surface of soft water

at the holy well—

But aren’t they in the moments when we call

to each other

as if at Julian’s veiled window

never knowing the others’ true face?

She paced the church cell walls,

not to escape but to touch,

yearning for the stories of those passing by.

We do not know her name,

but she strained to hear theirs.

To say them in prayers:

those names now too are silent, unknown

yet enfolded into the parchment where she wrote love again and again.

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Sherry Weaver Smith searches for poems inspired by her Catholic faith, the grasslands of the American West, and family life. She is the author of The Wolf and the Shield: An Adventure with Saint Patrick. Her poems have been published in The Heron's Nest, The Seventh Quarry, Vancouver Cherry Blossom Haiku Invitational; Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place and Nature; and The Amethyst Review (forthcoming).