WHY TAI CHI?
Tai Chi is a deliberate dance,
both solitary and in tandem.
It is a chorus
sung with body instead of voice.
You are rooted
to the floor,
yet bending
in invisible wind.
Begun with a mind full,
you end mindful:
self
moment
movement
calm
© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012
Poem #10, National Poetry Month 2012
Yesterday I got to Tai Chi class a little early, and so did a woman who was going to try the class for the very first time. She asked me to tell her what Tai Chi was like, and I found that the only way to really describe it was with metaphor.
I hope she'll keep coming back for a few years, because Tai Chi is NOT as I describe in my poem until you are deeper into the practice than the first few months of struggling to keep up while feeling very self-conscious.
Hmm...that's sounding like the growth of a writer, isn't it?
I've blogged a couple of times about Tai Chi, and last year I wrote a Tai Chi acrostic.
Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?