Chakrasana – a poem by Marian Christie

Chakrasana

My body resists.
Much easier to submit
to gravity, turn my back
on air and space and light
fold towards earth
yield to its dark warmth –

to let the weight of my bones draw me downwards
to wear my shoulder blades as a shield.

I am afraid
to unzip my breastbone
unmute my heart’s song
trust my body to escape
earth’s pull as though I could
expand into the universe.

Teach me, earth, how I may use your energy
to arc the rainbow’s wheel, surrender my heart to the sky.

Note: Chakrasana – the Wheel Pose – is a back-bending yoga posture.

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Marian Christie was born in Zimbabwe and has lived in Africa, Europe and the Middle East before settling in her current home in southeast England. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in a number of journals, including Allegro Poetry,Amethyst Review, The Beach Hut, Black Bough Poetry and The Ekphrastic Review, and in the anthologies The Stony Thursday Book 2018 and The Bridges 2020 Poetry Anthology.

When not writing or reading poetry, she looks at the stars, puzzles over the laws of physics, listens to birdsong and crochets gifts for her grandchildren. She blogs at www.marianchristiepoetry.net and can be found on Twitter: https://twitter.com/marian_v_o.