Thinking On Your Feet Is 2013

23 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2013, circling round yoga, definitely didactic, vaguely about music II Tags: , , , , , ,

Thinking On Your Feet Is

Gift, art, yoga;

Leading to a

Modus operandi,

Jazz,

Invention,

A defining fun.

Creation in a flash;

Living

In a now,

No deed is left undone,

Not one day gone,

Neglected or unloved.

Thinking fleetly on your feet,

Eliminates, eradicates:

Fear of fiasco,

Worry, stress, for not one

Thing can fail you;

Neither falling on your bottom

In the middle of your show

Or whatever else you’re doing.

Trivial and valuable –

It’s all significant,

While none of it means anything at all;

The usual

Illogicality.

Years of practicing

Improvisation

Mean that

Error’s never really wrong,

So

Practice,

Use life as an etude.

Make etude of every song.

Life plays.

Thinking On Your Feet 10.10.2013

Definitely Didactic; Vaguely About Music II; Circling Round Yoga;

Arlene Corwin

Not The Answer 2013

01 Aug 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2013, circling round yoga Tags: , , , , , , ,

Not The Answer

Yoga’s not the answer

To dilemmas, glitches, life’s catch 22s.

There’s always death or sickness; aging:

Causes, which a Buddha knows.

Hatha yoga helps

Where situation is ambiguous.

Consciousness has grown,

You’ve known your body

In so many ways;

You’ve learned to handle causes

Subtlest to the naked eye

Of even the most qualified.

And yet, and yes,

I recommend it.

Hatha, Raja, Bhakti, Jnana,*

Karma – each and every overlapping

Answers lying everywhere.

Nothing is the answer,

With the answers everywhere

Inside the layers.

Of the onion.

*pronounced gyana

Not The Answer 8.1.2013

Circling Round Yoga;

Arlene Corwin

Bed Yoga 2013

06 Jul 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2013, circling round yoga Tags: , ,

Bed Yoga

 

Concerned with spending time

In bed – more time than in the past;

Old, sick or just too lazy

To get up and out,

Bed Yoga is a passive yet self-starting way

To spend that time.

 

So many things to do in bed,

So many body parts to find;

So many parts to train;

So many ways to do it:

 

Squeeze, bend, lift, extend,

Press; then send

The breath to spots,

In pain and not.

Use the mind and be creative.

 

Squeeze your parts from top to bottom

(squeeze your bottom)

Press the leg into the bed;

Bend the parts that you can bend;

Lift the parts that you can lift;

Elongate and stretch; search, find;

Exploit the mind

Be creative.

 

Habit, science, way of life –

It’s all of those.

What works is what counts and what counts

Is what works.  Be creative.

 

Bed Yoga 7.6.2013

Circling Round Yoga;

Arlene Corwin

 

I Had Two Students 2009 I Have More Students 2013

05 May 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2009, 2013, circling round yoga, special people special occasions Tags: , , ,

                I Had Two Students

Worth the effort of a thought as ode:

I had two students who, the two

Were more than good;

Two students long ago,

Sincere, in tune

With what I taught, they listened;

Not a theme that brings applause.

There are universals

In the student who excels.

Confucius lauded those,

Who once corrected, never

Made the error over.

Personal and corny,

This, for Anna, Judy,

Down for all eternity.

 

I Had Two Students 7.27.2009

Circling Round Yoga; Special People, Special Occasions;

Arlene Corwin

 

I Have More Students

 

Teaching after many years;

Strictly speaking, thirty years.

Thirty new developments:

Let us say advances, change, expansions, growth,

Maturity, improvements; movements, yes,

Let’s call them movements.

 

Teaching once again and how

I love them – now

With mother love,

Regardless of

Age, character, health, gender,

Aptitudes.   All open to

Their new call yoga.

Age is advantageous;

Wrinkle has its force,

Influence its own

That smooth-faced youngsters

Cannot own.  Anecdotes

And silly jokes

To pepper truths with;

Improvised, creative lessons;

Backlog of creative funds

To last a lifetime,

Offered in the static wonder

We call yoga.

Open and obedient, each

Trusting in the message of the class.

What lecturer could ask

For more?

To leave the floor

Exhilarated, energized,

Shaped-up, sized-up all in an hour.

 

I Have More Students  5.4.2013

Circling Round Yoga; Special People, Special Occasions;

Arlene Corwin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All The Way From Sweden 2012

18 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2012, swedish book, vaguely about music II Tags: , , , , ,

All The Way From Sweden

 

All the way from Sweden

I can’t help but natter on:

Poetry and

Jazz and

Being,

Flying there to meet you and present myself

Out of the question.

Sitting

In my white

Room eating

Home-baked buttered roll with cheese,

Drinking cups of tea

To please my knife

And spoon and cup,

Eat, drinking up

While writing –

This because I like to share,

Not being able to transport myself

To where

You are.

 

Jazz: the art of improvising;

Mindfulness – a Zen.

The song a mantra/koan,

A yogic thing one ought to do

While in the bath,

While on the road, in bed

Or looking through the window

At a cloud:

Everything and anything a jazz.

 

Life: the distance

Between seconds,

Record kept inside your cells

And held there

All the years of breath,

The is your wealth

In  action.

 

All The Way From Sweden 4.18.2012

Vaguely About Music II; Swedish Book;

Arlene Corwin

Late In Life 2013

15 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2013, circling round yoga Tags: , , ,

Late In Life

 

Late in life, the chances less,

There’s stiffening,

A mold long lasting;

Anyway, there’s leeway, flexibility,

Scope and freedom;

Latitude

Always,

All ways.

Stretching forward

Pressing, reaching,

Catching hold

Of anything that aids,

You reach your toes

And teach your toes

That you’re the boss.

 

Late can be the better part.

Late can be the start.

 

Late In Life 3.15.2013

Circling Round Yoga;

Arlene Corwin

 

Little Steps 2012

29 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2012, circling round reality, definitely didactic Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Little Steps

 

Little steps taken alone:

Small moves in isolation;

Growth, progress, all in

Small steps – no hops; the way to concentration,

Higher being, deeper seeing

And the soundest system

To self-wisdom.

 

With little more to say, small obstacles still in the way,

Not much elucidates the matter better.

Later what’s in store

Is written in the letter

Of the law

of karma:

Chance and luck and ambience,

All in the chain of cause/effect;

Destiny determined, radiated

By decision, persons and location.

 

Little is by small degrees – but gets there.

Little has a small effect – but gets there.

Little sounds like trivial.

It isn’t.

Little has a goal

and gets where

We’re all headed for sooner

Or later.

 

Small Steps 12.29.2012

Definitely Didactic; Circling Round Reality;

Arlene Corwin

 

 

Everything A Rubberband 2012

28 Sep 2012 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2012, circling round yoga Tags: , , , ,

         Everything A Rubber Band

 

Everything’s a rubber band –

Even psyche.

Everything can stretch and bend,

Given time and phase and use.

Doing yoga, keep in mind:

Every muscle, nerve and tendon.

Even bone

Bends to your service

If you work it

Long enough and without force.

Every movement on your level –

Not his, hers, theirs but yours.

In the end it’s all a level

Knowledge, building upon

Strong suits; weakness.

Rubber band,

Yes, yes and yes.

 

Everything A Rubber Band 9.7.2012

Circling Round Yoga;

Arlene Corwin

 

 

 

 

 

All At The Same Time 1995

22 Nov 2008 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 1995, circling round energy, circling round nature, circling round woman, coffee book, our times our culture Tags: , , , , , , , ,

     All At The Same Time

I like to start the day with coffee:

Half black power, half au lait,

Turn on the Beeb, begin a poem.

Taking down a favorite tome-

A little read – I clean the bedroom,

Roam downstairs and get involved.

The menu solved, I wipe the floor

Then jump-rump to piano where

I sit, playing a tune or four.

Go back and start a bread. Then yoga

In a toga or a sweat suit,

Standing on one foot I eat a fruit

Then fetch the radio and go outside

To clip a hedge

And while in motion find I dredge

A title, line, a word or two

From deep within the conscious. Whew!

I saunter back because I’m haunted

By the drive to write it up,

So then, undaunted, drink another cup

(I know it’s bad) of caffeined brew.

(It’s such a pleasant thing to do).

Then turning art toward starting lunch,

Poetic hunch aside, I stretch –

A bit more yoga. Oh, the post:

Walk up the road –four hundred meters.

Smell the air. What could be sweeter?

Well, that’s taken care of most.

It’s flame October, mushrooms wanting to be picked.

I’ve time to rove o’er hill and ditch, bog and moss.

I’ve no success.

Through trudge and brook and mushroom book

I know no longer where to look

And bear my bucket home again, no worse for wear,

Free from care, lungs filled with air.

Resuming chores, my song, my rhyme,

My coffee, yoga – ah, it’s time

To greet my husband, feed the cat,

Giving all my warmth to that.

Feeding husband, cat and me – triple-sided chat for three –

I fall from grace and watch TV

Awhile, then go to bed and read –

Perchance to sleep, to dream – or maybe

Stand ten minutes on my head,

Tell God I want to do His will,

And then at twelve, lie quite, quite still.

©All At The Same Time 95.10.31

Circling Round Nature; Circling Round Woman; Our Times, Our Culture; Coffee Book;

Arlene Corwin

 

All At The Same Time 2007

25 Oct 2008 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

All At The Same Time

I like to start the day with coffee:
Half black power, half au lait,
Turn on the Beeb, begin a poem.
Taking down a favorite tome-
A little read – I clean the bedroom,
Roam downstairs and get involved.
The menu solved, I wipe the floor
Then jump-rump to piano where
I sit, playing a tune or four.
Go back and start a bread. Then yoga
In a toga or a sweat suit,
Standing on one foot I eat a fruit
Then fetch the radio and go outside
To clip a hedge
And while in motion find I dredge
A title, line, a word or two
From deep within the conscious. Whew!
I saunter back because I’m haunted
By the drive to write it up,
So then, undaunted, drink another cup
(I know it’s bad) of caffeined brew.
(It’s such a pleasant thing to do).
Then turning art toward starting lunch,
Poetic hunch aside, I stretch –
A bit more yoga. Oh, the post:
Walk up the road –four hundred meters.
Smell the air. What could be sweeter?
Well, that’s taken care of most.
It’s flame October, mushrooms wanting to be picked.
I’ve time to rove o’er hill and ditch, bog and moss.
I’ve no success.
Through trudge and brook and mushroom book
I know no longer where to look
And bear my bucket home again, no worse for wear,
Free from care, lungs filled with air.
Resuming chores, my song, my rhyme,
My coffee, yoga – ah, it’s time
To greet my husband, feed the cat,
Giving all my warmth to that.
Feeding husband, cat and me – triple-sided chat for three –
I fall from grace and watch TV
Awhile, then go to bed and read –
Perchance to sleep, to dream – or maybe
Stand ten minutes on my head,
Tell God I want to do His will,
And then at twelve, lie quite, quite still.

©All At The Same Time 95.10.31
Circling Round Nature; Circling Round Woman; Our Times, Our Culture; Coffee Book;
Arlene Corwin

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