©Barbara Harris Leonhard @extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog
Tag: Tai Chi
New Audio: Fair Maiden
Fair Maiden
White leather sown with straps and beads,
Braids woven in feathers
Though fair skinned,
I am a Native maiden,
On my path winding inward.
The forest tangles
Yet opens its vines and limbs
As a cave mouth,
Where I enter, greeted by a wolf and a hawk,
Guides to an overlook.
Wolf at my side, the expanse opens up.
I fly with Hawk,
The wind drumming my face
To where the dance is,
The drums, the rattles.
Wolf and I dance.
As the Fire strokes my hair.
Drumming, chanting, whirling.
I whirl my arms skyward,
Embracing air. I am small,
For the twisting air makes night a shape,
Looming before me, it asks if
I am ready to die.
I stand bold, warding off Death.
Fair Maiden to the North,
South, East, and West, all directions.
Night Dragon breathes Fire,
But I ward off Death in the fumes.
All around the drums beating
In my heart, steady beats, strong.
I stand like granite.
I am the chanting, the dance.
The songs open to me
The words I need to know
As I emerge from the rage
Of Night, asking for my Soul,
Of which I have many,
One for every element.
The elders sing my divination,
Their faces lit by fire and stars.
The Night Beast withdraws,
Warded off by my Spirit,
There he rests, waiting
For another test of me, but
He’s really an Ally,
Guarding a contract
Written in parchment
By the Sea of Forgetting.
I am here to be reborn.
To awaken to Truth
And to lead others to their sacred gardens,
Where Fear makes their beasts
And where they greet Death
As a passage to their Spirit Name.
And emerge as warriors,
Gifted with arrows, feathers, and drums.
Copyright © 2017 Barbara Harris Leonhard
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/native-sprite-dancer-folk-art-20341/
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New Audio: In the Emperor’s Throne
I am a stranger
In a strange land
Bone to bone with natives
Capturing a sight once
Forbidden by the kingdom –
The Emperor’s throne.
It holds secrets revealed,
Legends, unfolding like silk
In stories bound in parchment
And sealed by scholars
Tested in cages;
Their triumphs, their duty.
The Emperor’s throne,
Guarded by Fu Lions and
Heated by cauldrons
Brewing the spoils of
Valiant conquests
Ending in tombs with mercury rivers.
The Emperor’s throne
Gave birth to the Dragon,
Stretching for eras
In wakeful slumber
Tended to by the masses
And nurtured into stone.
Up his steep spine,
I am pushed and pulled breathless,
Stepping on the shadows
Of ancient sentries guarding
The Emperor’s treasures of
Jade, silk, porcelain, and gold,
Gilded, woven, carved, and
Etched to perfection
In the likeness of antiquity.
At the peak, visible to all,
The Great Beast ends –
That way of stone –
To a train station in Shanghai,
Where a doll-eyed girl with long black braids
Greets me at the KFC.
To a city park in Nanjing, where
People walk their dogs,
Play Tai Chi, fly kites,
Dance to music from ‘Grease”,
And bring their caged birds
To greet the sunrise
In the shadow of the throne.
To a country road
Lined with carts of fruit and vegetables
And a farmer’s wife waving
As I snap pictures of her
Roosters, hens, and pigs
In the gaze of the Great Dragon.
To a landscape of people
In their daily toil –
Cooks in white linen,
Fishers sorting their catches,
Vendors lining the walkways
With silk slippers, gilded bags, and wooden combs.
To a city intersection with
Young girls on pink mopeds
Darting between students on bikes,
Families in cars, and workers on buses,
All frantically moving head on into
A silent agreement to part ways.
© 2017 Barbara Harris Leonhard
Image:
The Throne in the Hall of Preserving Harmony
Public Domain
800px-Forbiddencitythroneroom01
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In the Emperor’s Throne
I am a stranger
In a strange land
Bone to bone with natives
Capturing a sight once
Forbidden by the kingdom –
The Emperor’s throne.
It holds secrets revealed,
Legends, unfolding like silk
In stories bound in parchment
And sealed by scholars
Tested in cages;
Their triumphs, their duty.
The Emperor’s throne,
Guarded by Fu Lions and
Heated by cauldrons
Brewing the spoils of
Valiant conquests
Ending in tombs with mercury rivers.
The Emperor’s throne
Gave birth to the Dragon,
Stretching for eras
In wakeful slumber
Tended to by the masses
And nurtured into stone.
Up his steep spine,
I am pushed and pulled breathless,
Stepping on the shadows
Of ancient sentries guarding
The Emperor’s treasures of
Jade, silk, porcelain, and gold,
Gilded, woven, carved, and
Etched to perfection
In the likeness of antiquity.
At the peak, visible to all,
The Great Beast ends –
That way of stone –
To a train station in Shanghai,
Where a doll-eyed girl with long black braids
Greets me at the KFC.
To a city park in Nanjing, where
People walk their dogs,
Play Tai Chi, fly kites,
Dance to music from ‘Grease”,
And bring their caged birds
To greet the sunrise
In the shadow of the throne.
To a country road
Lined with carts of fruit and vegetables
And a farmer’s wife waving
As I snap pictures of her
Roosters, hens, and pigs
In the gaze of the Great Dragon.
To a landscape of people
In their daily toil –
Cooks in white linen,
Fishers sorting their catches,
Vendors lining the walkways
With silk slippers, gilded bags, and wooden combs.
To a city intersection with
Young girls on pink mopeds
Darting between students on bikes,
Families in cars, and workers on buses,
All frantically moving head on into
A silent agreement to part ways.
© 2017 Barbara Harris Leonhard
Image:
The Throne in the Hall of Preserving Harmony
Public Domain
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The Birth of Tai Ji
th
Wu Ji is Source.
Stillness, the Void,
No thing, Nothing.
The Essence
And Yuan Qi (Original Qi).
The Grand Ultimate.
The space void between Qian and Kun,
Pure Yang and Pure Yin.
The Essence
Tai Chi Chuan
Yang (Movement) and Yin (Stillness),
The Supreme Polarity.
The One plus The Two beget Life as
Source breathes the Ten Thousand Things and so
Tai Ji, The Grand Extreme, and so
Tai Ji begets Tai Ji Chuan.
Essence begets Qi,
Qi begets Spirit,
Spirit begets Void,
Void begets Essence.
Essence begets Qi,
Qi begets Spirit,
Spirit begets Void,
Void begets Essence.
This is the Great Mystery.
__________________
I am sorry about so many spelling differences in my poems about Tai Chi. Qi and Ji are Chi. I wrote this poem after reading Sun Lutang’s book on Taiji. His life story is fascinating. He was a scholar of the I-Ching and Doaism. Let me know if this poem needs details. I don’t feel this one is finished.
© 2017 Barbara Harris Leonhard @extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog
Image: https://www.google.com/
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Tao Play
When they come to you,
They are but seeds,
Seeking redemption
In Tao play.
Taking their positions,
Centering in Wu Chi,
Nurtured by white cranes’
Wings and sparrows tails
Of which they knew
Little before they found Chi,
Embraced in a ball,
Encompassed by Tao.
They take to quarrels
With monkeys and prevail,
Warding off their fears
And sending them flying.
Seeds take sprout unfolding
In the light of the horizon
Through the temple gates
Out of the shadows of their lives.
Listening, they see
They are vessels receiving
And giving sustenance
From the source of life.
They sprout new growth
In swords and fans
And are lifted out of
Their birth place to new ground.
They find the balance
In all Forms, which,
When done to perfection,
Will make them immortal.
This poem was written to commemorate Kenny Greene’s 60th birthday. He has taught Tai Chi Chuan here in Columbia, Missouri for years for free. Many of us, and the classes are growing, have learned a great deal from Kenny not just about Tai Chi Chuan but also about community. He has received several awards for his service to our community. If you try to discuss politics with hum, he says, Grow your garden. He’s growing his garden and not getting caught up in negativity. He leads by example. He is also forever giving and unselfish. Someone in class today felt so behind by missing two Chen Tai Chi Chuan classes taught by Arthur Du, and Kenny told him to come by his shop. He would catch him up. We indeed owe a great deal to Kenny Greene! Here I am reading my poem at his party. Kenny is in the background.
© 2017 Barbara Harris Leonhard @extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog
Image: http://www.marcusdargan.com/soul-of-the-world/
