Vrksasana

Posted April 10, 2008 at 04:00 PM by Alexandra Haller

Section: Her Fitness, Her Health, Her Motivation, The Yoga Life

April is National Poetry Month. In the spirit of lyrical beauty, Her Active Life offers you the following poem by Leza Lowitz, from her book, Yoga Poems: Lines To Unfold By.

Vrksasana --------------- Tree

How difficult it is to stand straight and tall. How much more difficult to do it on one leg. God knew what she was doing when she made us bipedal. Yet we spend most of life hunched over, denying the true weight of the gift we’ve been given. Now the trunk aches as it tries to expand to full height - buried, as it’s been, in the bone. Gain and loss victory and defeat fame and shame body and mind mind and soul - dualities vanish. The tree grows green against the blue sky, drawing the sun’s rays through the slatted shutters of the ribs. We are the roots. We are the forests and the trees. Here, there is only one trunk. On it rests the world.