ARABESQUE

1. To be able to lift your leg
in a backwards thrust,
to extend your opposite arm
in counterbalance,
and then lean horizontally into space,
delicate as a bird in flight,
like a swan stretching

Is to know the extension of the flexing soul.

2. Stand barefoot, stand erect,
yet loose limbed with palms on thighs.
Stand with eyes focused on the future
as your right hand reaches for the rising sun.

Your left leg rises in counterpoise to the setting moon,
until you become horizontal as the land.
Then with one leg supported by the hip,
pivot, and stand like the axis of the earth,
with your toes caressing the mother
so that you may draw nourishment from her.

2/10/1986
probably a CAC workshop
added, minor rev. 9/17