To Center, Again

(free to read) A poem for poetry day

October is here and there’s a poem I recalled with the turn of the calendar page this week. Perhaps National Poetry Day, which is today here in the United Kingdom where I live, nudged it back into my consciousness. Or maybe it’s the winds of change, prompting a recalibration of balance, again.

Change, the only truly constant beat, is whispering — Come to center.

Can you hear it?

One of the reasons I set up this space is to create a home for some of the words that occupy my head and heart, fill piles of notebooks, and inform my practices, in hopes that it might be of service to you and your own practice. So often when I sit to write, or meditate, or practice yoga, my thoughts tumble out in the form of inventories and verse — impromptu poems from me to you. If you’ve been here for a while you might have noticed.

All this is to say I’m marking this poetry day by sharing a favourite from behind the paywall. It also feels fitting that my 100th(!) post is a poem share, perhaps a serendipitous honouring of a catalyst that brought us here to practice balance. I wrote these lines last year alongside a yoga practice and they feel as timely as ever, as we hold on and let go — autumn invites us home.

Read or listen as you like…

Come to Center

Begin with your body
Place, gently, your bones into their homes
Aligning joints —
knees over ankles
hips over knees
ribcage over pelvis
shoulders…

Activate, strongly,
your muscles into remembrance
of how to hold your structure
your refined, subtle awareness
of how to uphold yourself

Inhale — hold yourself
Exhale — try easier

Holding on and letting go
in equal measure
into your ever-changing center
Disorder (re)ordering
into a new, timely order
center, balance
here, again

Practice and feel the difference.