On the Mat

At the start with fear beside,
flat, fat and taught.
Arms and legs and trunk contract
behind imprisoned thought.

To Gods-
head bowed heart lifted.
In teachable postures.
Let go to be guided.

The world is too much with us.
Yet here the center’s found.
Reclaim the dwindling powers.
To length, breadth and width we’re bound.

Bhandas contracting and arching restraint.
Desperate, subtle swinging.
Drips and drops a yoga of in.
The blood, the light all rushing.

Now on the mat,
puddles of death explored,
entangling the farthest star,
resistance relinquished…restored.

-Jack Paradis
Los Angeles 2014