<\/p>\n
On the mat, they say
\nUse your earth energy
\nFlow like water
\nLight as air
\nBright, bright fiery motion.<\/p>\n
Every beginner hears it.
\nMinds fill with images,
\nBodies practice rote strength,
\nSpirits amuse themselves
\nWhile the minds and bodies
\nGo their separate ways
\nTrying to integrate.<\/p>\n
The path from beginner to master
\nIs earthy. Grit in the teeth, in the eyes.
\nPressed against the ground,
\nStaying down an extra second for the rest,
\nGasping. Walking the woods alone, carrying
\nWeapons, blistered, unseen, sweating.
\nScrabbling up a slope on all fours,
\nBowing in to a distant mountain top,
\nListening to her silence and steadiness
\nTransform an asinine thought into
\nEmbodiment.<\/p>\n
Immersed in the ocean,
\nSurvival demands the
\nEnd of ideas about water.
\nThe work of
\nBreathing
\nFloating
\nDiving
\nRolling
\nExorcises thoughts.
\nThe body is flotsam in the flow.
\nOnly alignment is life.
\nTo think is to thrash and tire,
\nTo tumble then crash,
\nBreathless on the bloody sand.<\/p>\n
On the mat, those little puffs of air thought are
\nToddlers blowing on birthday cakes.
\nStanding in sirocco,
\nLifting off my feet
\nWatching bits of the roof fly away
\nFinding I can\u2019t lift my own arm,
\nMuch less that weapon, until I
\nSurrender to air,
\nMove within motion,
\nSlice with the gusts<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get me started on fire.
\nThat little blowtorch in your head is
\nBarely a spark.
\nSunshine is fire.
\nSunshine is life:
\nFree for all, no
\nJudgement or evaluation.
\nWhen that fire suffuses my body
\nMy smile can stop a bus.<\/p>\n
Body, mind, and soul together
\nConduct these energies.
\nA master on the mat
\nFeels the mountain under her feet
\nBorrows slow inexorable motion as she
\nSlides between the waves of attacking motion
\nTurns a tornado behind him, into which he and his attack
\nVanish while they
\nLaugh together
\nHappily polishing their spirits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On the mat, they say Use your earth energy Flow like water Light as air Bright, bright fiery motion. Every beginner hears it. Minds fill with images, Bodies practice rote strength, Spirits amuse themselves While the minds and bodies Go their separate ways Trying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":967,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,441],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-poetry-prompt-responses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/967"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32103,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31561\/revisions\/32103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}