Poetry
Moon-glowing snow invites a round of taiji.
A joining with the night in the windless field.
Head suspended from star beam;
feet reach down through the crust
to the deeper center below.
Breathe in…
Hold…
breathe out…
Bend knees; sink to the place
where nothing gives birth to all.
Step to the side,
a conscious act,
blending reach and balance,
until a new position allows another way
of seeing and feeling the world.
Animal ghosts close in,
keeping just out of sight,
awaiting evocation by shifting movement:
Grasp the Bird’s Tail
The Crane Dries His Wing
Split the Horse’s Mane
The Snake Creeps Down
Each embracing its own yin-yang flow,
staying connected to the larger dance.
Cloud Hands
as soft cirrus feathers drift along
The Fair Lady Works at Shuttles
breeze weaves pine boughs across the moon
Pick up Needle from the Ocean Floor
beneath the lattice of crystaled snow.
Steps trace a pattern on the ground -
the path of a flowing moment.
Both will be gone by morning.
Back to that nameless formless depth
where they may be born again
as the worlds shift through dark and light.
Embrace the Tiger
Return to the Mountain.
Owl
Before Winter Solstice
2005
Life in a Taiji-suit
Ode to Life, Ode to Taiji, Ode to all Taiji teachers
(the yinyang of taiji, the suit of life)
Life has given us a suit
A suit for growing
To stretch and strengthen
A Taiji-suit
Loose in his smoothness
Mild and inviting
A generous coat
For our soul to stretch out
Like the life
That says:
You can be big
You have more space then you think
No limits, no obstructions,
Except your own obstacles
A suit smooth but not concealing
Like in life
The smallest of our movements
Can have consequences reaching far
Exciting ripples
Kilometres away
A suit
To move carefully in life
But also
With power
A suit that can absorb
Kicks and punches
And that is exactly the suit
That life has given to us
The life itself
That gives itself
At every instant
Again and again
And the dance, we can choose freely
Wholeheartedly
As it suits our soul
Who likes to stretch out
Happily
As far as it can
Always further
And further
Elisabeth Muys
From: http://www.jankraak-taichitao.nl/content/website.php?hoofdpagina_id=1186