yoga class

Good morning. My name is Zoe and I will be guiding you through your yoga journey today. Let's all come to seated, legs crossed, hands to your heart, palms touch. Close your eyes here. Sit tall, but sit comfortable. Begin to observe the movement of your chest. Expanding through the bottom of your belly on your inhale, contracting on your exhale. Slow your breath. <2-3> Bring your hands to the center of your forehead, your third eye center. Connect with your intuition, honoring your path to your higher self. <2> Bring your hands back to your heart. Engage your Ujayi breath here, breathing in and out through your nose, with a slight constriction in the back of your throat. This is audible, oceanic breathing. Let your breath guide you through your practice today, using it as an anchor to keep you firmly grounded in the present moment. <2> Very slowly, open your eyes, plant your palms into the ground and come to your knees. From here, on your exhale, find your downward dog, sending your hips high to the sky, hands and shoulders are hip width distance apart. Pressing through all ten fingers, shoulders roll away from one another and down your back. Energize your heels towards the mat. Together, lets warm up our legs. Inhale onto your toes. Exhale drop your knees parallel to the mat, hovering just a few inches. Inhale hips back high to the sky, still on your toes. Exhale your heels to the ground. Inhale, onto your toes. Exhale, shins parallel. Inhale, hips high. Exhale heels down. Once more, breath cues only. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Beautiful. Inhale. Exhale look toward your hands and walk your feet forward to the top of your mat for Ragdoll Pose. Bending forward from the hip flexors, interlace your pinkies in your elbows. Really embrace gravity in this pose. Opening up the sides of the body, inhale gently sway right. Exhale gently sway left. Inhale right. Exhale left. Inhale. Exhale. Coming back to center, drop your hands. On your deepest, longest inhale yet, unfurl one vertebrae at a time to standing. Hands to your heart. Take a moment to set an intention for your practice this morning. If you are new to yoga, perhaps your intention is to simply observe your body today. Let the poses mold to your body, and not the other way around. Or perhaps you would like to send out this positive energy, this chi that we are creating today to the less fortunate, whether family or strangers. Take a few of your own deep breaths here. <3>

Release your arms to your sides. Inhale Tadasana, mountain pose, hands extending to the sky. Pinkies roll in toward one another, shoulders melt down your back. Finding freedom and extension in this asana, this pose. Exhale Uttanasana, bending at the hip, hands melting through your heart. Inhale halfway lift, finding a flat spine, energy from the top of your head through your tailbone. Exhale plant your palms and step back to a high plank position. Come to your knees to modify our first Chattarunga today. Inhale, inch slightly forward, exhale lower halfway to the ground, elbows tuck into your sides. Inhale upward facing dog, pressing through the tops of your feet and your palms. Heart shines to the sky. Neck is neutral. Exhale, engage the core, downward facing dog.

serenity

"Live each present moment completely and the future will take care of itself. Fully enjoy the wonder and beauty of each instant." - Yogananda

danny

you always did know
what i wanted to say
my wiggling toes
they gave me away
sipping martinis,
me with my guinness
nomads together
with sweet little kisses
loquacious we were
big words of the day
singing and laughing
and playing away
but in all of the fun
i started to see
the anger lay hidden
from everyone but me
they say once the heart falls
it can only crash down
love strewn across concrete
curses thrown all around

and its at that point
that one has to decide
whether love conquers all
like jealously and pride
i waited for you
to ask me to stay
and clutch at your heart
but to my dismay
you just were not able
to fight for our love
to spare me the curses
and hold me from above
i never could hate you
i cared far too much
and sitting here i long
once again for your touch
now i'll spare you my tears
but i'll rhyme one last line
if you could conquer your anger
i would love to call you mine.

again

in our vain attempt
to portend affection,
we changed the clocks
so we no longer would know
the time we spent
faking it.

dude!

dear crazy eyes,
you must be high
to think that you
can swear at me
next to the espresso machine.

eclectic

the earthquake happened hours ago
but i have not moved
from this flowered couch

the clock, now resting on the floor
keeps track of my immobility

nothing hit me directly
although i almost wish it had
if only to be a legitimate distraction
from my infidelity

i continue my non-movement
in the eerie quiet
that always seems to follow disaster

farewell sun

As I walk away, you walk away
It's the end and theres nothing to say
I'm the horizon and you set like the sun
A glisten on the waves and you're gone.

T

With you,
I am the little girl with lunch packed, clothes laid out
all ready for a big adventure
barely sleeping for excitement

With me,
You are the busy-bee father with as many ties as excuses
good intentioned but overbooked
leaving me sitting on the curb alone

Eventually the little girl learns disappointment
breathes disappointment, expects disappoinment
but all the expectations in the world do not reassure her
when she is again disappointed in you.

fog

its hazy in here
but to you it looks clear
'cause you have no reference for clarity

without care or despair
life goes nowhere
and the days pass by like minutes

Negating

The grass is giving way
to the well worn path

And the clouds are giving way
to the sun

The calm of the sea
gives way to its waves

But darlin I cant give way to no one.

ubiquity

so when I say
that I love the way
you caress my neck
with your soft kisses

or when ‘I love you’
prematurely slips into our lives
in the heat of the moment
you must know

that love does not hint
at the feeling
but that this language
does not properly supply me

with the word
that I feel for you.

drats

when I think about you

I cock my head to the side

like a confused dog

I focus on

breathing in good energy and

breathing out bad energy

but it does nothing to purge you from my thoughts

I lie down

and feel my heart beating in my stomach

I think of you again

and it quickens

I fell too fast

down down down

the single thud at the bottom

tells me that I am alone

love

a whirlwind of smiles
giddy to a fault
my soul is light

the first kiss
of light on your face
shadows dance
in your eyes

i make the choice
ignoring the doubts
curled in your arms
you hold me up

my thoughts colliding
like trains-
twisted metal
is unforgiving.

fearing height

from your perch in the great elm
you pull me up
to lay on the branches.
they are as sturdy as your grip
on my quiet hand.

fall’s uneven colors surround us
as we hide in the leaves
whispering, the wind is watching us.
you may see fear in my eyes
but its only the height--

I don’t want to fall.

Harmony

Eating meditation: consuming food silently, grateful for the nourishment while also pondering the origins of the food which one is consuming. Recognizing that while this food sustains the human body, our body is not ours. Anatta. Freedom from attachment. Especially powerful by candlelight.

Slow down. Acknowledge the wandering mind while bringing the thoughts back to ones of gratefulness. Appreciate. Love.

Midnight Thoughts

My fears rebound off the walls and I feel surrounded
by what could or may be and my head is pounding

I take a deep breath and center my thoughts
I try hard to focus but we're spinning like tops

I feel so much younger than this skin does show
with my brain set at seven my body did grow

And now I play house with rent and the bills
while doing away with those childish thrills

But I want to return to that innocence and joy
and the elation a girl feels surrounded by toys

Yet now I must move and study and work
I must get my own mail, my duties not shirk

I must solve all my problems by using my head
I must do my own laundry and make my own bed

But one day I vow to return to that place
of love and of caring, of hope and of grace.

I am self-absorbed.

I live most of my life in fantasy.
I care deeply for others.
I act on impulse.
I build forts.
I tell lies.
I smile.
I run.
I write.
I feel fat.
I smoke pot.
I sing and strum.
I want to be a bluejay.
I create my own illusion.

untitled

try as it might
sunlight cannot break through
the window’s dark blue canvas
--it also covers you
and try as one might
the dark screen of doubt
covers your heart
and keeps me out

We stop

we’re moving too fast to see the flowers
speeding down this long blackened road
a blur of purple, a spot of yellow
swallowed up in the vast green canvas
momentary colors overwhelm

the force of wind against my hand
I make waves out the window
the sun warms my arm
my heart beats

and all this beauty surrounds and devours
our little life, this little day
just one in a million that will be had
oh, abruptly we stop
living