25 ... and I'm still alive.

It's another Monday at the Academic Ranch, where we wrangle ideas and dogies.  I will not comment on the weather (because who cares?) except to note that the tulips are up and still tightly budded. I can't tell you how happy I'll be when they pop, but will confess that the joy is nearly sexual.

Today's poem prompt:

For today’s prompt, write an exercise poem. The poem could be about a specific exercise, or it could just incorporate exercising into the poem. Or it could be dedicated to a piece of exercise equipment–so an ode to an elliptical machine or those hand grippers or something. Of course, not every exercise is physical; there are military exercises, mental exercises, and so on. (http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/2016-april-pad-challenge-day-25)

Good. I want to write about yoga.  Shout out to Jaci Stempski, my favorite yogi, and her most wonderful studio, Grace Yoga, on Broadway in downtown Green Bay. If it weren't for Grace Yoga, I'd be a crazy unbearable fret ball that no one (least of all myself) would be able to stand for more than five minutes.

*

before practice

5:20 am
we come alone
with rolled mats
tangled thoughts
bed heads
Monday fears

light blue light
rises slowly
behind
half wrecked buildings
light poles
screaming gulls

and lie quiet
warped wood under us
warmed by
decades of feet

steam breathes on us
from black vents
soaking hot music
into our skins
our legs and arms
stretched loose
in corpse pose
palms up
and ready
to receive
chests rising
and falling in
a regular tide

soon we'll be called
to move
bend and stretch
then stand tall
raise our arms overhead
press them
to heart center
dive down
to forward fold
halfway lift
flat back
fold down again
step out to plank
press the mat away
light and strong
lower down halfway
press our chests
to the mirrors
(upward dog)
then bend back
rolling over our feet
to a deep inverted vee
(down dog)
hearts drumming
(sun salutation 1)
then again
and again

but now
it's enough
to lie still
let our souls
simmer up
mingle
like flames
in the dim room
energy leaping
and flickering
between us
to wake up
air and breath
to fill us
with each other
completely