Poem: The Heart Moving

Scratch your left ear with your right foot by all means

But show me how your heart moves

Stand on your head til the cows come home
Or show me a thousand different points of view
Flip flop and drop back
Another 108 sun salutes just like that,
But I’d rather know if you can meet every edge in your body with kindness
If you have the courage to uncover and tolerate the truth about yourself
And lift your neighbour across fields of muddy waters
Bending over backwards to offer out whatever you have left.

The absolute gift of breath flowing with consumate ease through every joint
The moment to moment knowledge of how each beautiful step initiates, transfers and completes
Gliding quietly and smoothly, transition after transition
The quiet grace of the wild cat
Each dawn awakening fresh and vibrant
And the night, not a collapse in a heap, but a presence to the wonderful art of resting
Liquid pouring onto the earth
Facing the end with a breathing centre
And be held with great love

And turn and wonder, “My beloved, how does kindness move here?”

Reprinted wtih permission from Neal Goshal of Sacred Moves, a New Zealand-based yoga, dance and bodywork center hosting yoga teacher trainings at Kawaipurapura in north Auckland.