Thursday, July 26, 2012

Collaboration

An experiment in crowdsourced poetry. Add the next line in the comment section, below, building on other's contributions. Writer's block? Try beer. Or dark chocolate. Whatever works.


Limber, lithe, languorous and just a little louche

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Doubt


Sunlight
Lumens every lump and wrinkle of
My practice
Lucidates my fears

The ruthless dawn
Encourages anxieties to
Chat me up at breakfast
Intimating that

If I were really
Always getting better, I'd be
Really good
By now

Even incremental progress would
Add up (they hint) and
Reach, at last, a
Tidy sum

From there, it's not too far to wonder
How much of my progress is
Illusion, clever sleight of
Coaching hand?

How much adept
Self-deception
Redefining goals and
Grading on a shifting curve?

I'm saved, at last, by dusk:
With moonrise inhibitions fall
And optimism swells
The kindly dark obscures my flaws

The gloom of pessimism makes it  hard to keep my goals in sight
That's why I pursue my praxis in the night

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Summer Practice


Sweat exceeds the common sodden quota
Even my stodgy non-electric bib
Conducts

Socks creep down
Knickers giving way to shorts (the heat
More painful than the prospect of a bruise or two)

An increase in aestival truancy
Teammates disappear and re-emerge
Skin a searing bronze against their laundered uniforms

We horse around with silly moves unlikely to
Succeed in competition
But then again…they might

Lazy nights that end in talk of
Nothing much
Conversations I will treasure, and forget

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Shavasana


Rest

So simple, yes?
Just doing
Nothing

Not exerting effort
Not attempting longer, harder
Better
Best

Not trying
(Come to think of it)
At all

Except

For me, the off switch is
A little out of reach
A little
Stiff
A little…
Face it, jammed in place and
Never going to move

I haven’t got a rheostat to
Ramp things down, a
Regulator set to
Cycle on and off

I know that I
Need down time, time to
Cool, recalibrate re
Charge
That doing nothing’s really when
Experience sinks in

An anabolic state of change

Frankly, letting go,
Cessation
Feels a little bit too much like
Death
I worry if I
Power down the engine won’t
Restart

So take it one step at a time, meticulous instructions
Breathe
Relax
Release 

Friday, July 6, 2012

Teammates


I don't learn alone

We practice in entangled states
Each move you master
Forces me to counter, ensuring
We progress at
Somewhat equal rates

Your prodding feet push me along
Your triumphs
Buoy me up your
Setbacks add to my
Determination

As I forge ahead you
Keep me grounded in
Reality
Puncturing pretense,
With ruthless informality

When you level up my
Jealousy is tempered by my
Pride
("See, that move? She worked on that so long!")
Knowing that I I helped in
My own minor way

In this commensal state
We take turns to study & to teach
Proving what is possible
Demonstrating what's within our reach

We're all of us interdependent
Remember that, when your star is ascendant