March 7th, 2021: Upward Salute

(Urdhva Hastasana)

When you place your palms together and raise your arms,
what is it that deserves your precious attention?

What colors does this thing reflect?
Is it still, or does it disturb the air with its movements?
Does it fill the air with a fragrance?

Does it affect the temperature of the room?
Can you sense it on your skin?

Is it always present? Or
does it move in and out of your realm of awareness?

Have you given it a name?

Does it breathe? Speak? Sing?
To you? or for whose benefit?

What is it that keeps you grounded while you reach?
What keeps you relaxed in this state of tension?

What do you observe in this moment of balance –
between the earth and the sky?
between you and this thing…

February 28th, 2021: Mountain Pose

(Tadasana)

What can you see from the vantage point of your full height?

Do you stand alone and expand like a mesa, stretching
open in all directions? Or
Are you a single peak in a chain of mountains?
A sentinel for your community?

What is our origin story?
Were you molded from the fiery earth?
Did you come into being with a violent
clashing of opposing forces?
Were you carefully sculpted by a loving god?

What treasures run through your veins, and
who has seen them? Who will? And
when?

What wears you away, and
how does this erosion make you more beautiful?

February 21st, 2021: Pigeon Pose

(Kapotasana)

When do you feel overlooked?
When do you feel undervalued?

When do you feel like one of a crowd –
and are just fine with that?

What does it feel like to fly?
What does the air taste like up there over the city?
What do you hear from there?

On the piazza, when the world moves so slowly in front of your eyes
what do you notice most? What is everyone else missing
as they rush by – self-important with their takeaway coffees
and bags of half-eaten bread?

Where do you hide your babies?
What advice do you give them before they
flutter around the old woman throwing dried peas
over the trampled grass?