Here is a poem that I wrote a number of years ago. I was reminded of it during a recent Yoga retreat as I was doing a free-write associated with the Goddess archetypal image of water. . . our bodies are 98% water and quite fluid when we allow ourselves to touch into that fluidity and allow the body to move us instead of thinking about how to move the body.

Desire of the Spine

Beyond the everyday edge
of  imagination
the belly dancer
spangled, bangled
side-winds through desert scape
over wind-sculpted dunes
of timeless design.

Her reptilian form
perfectly scaled
follows the grain,
allows the soft underbelly to
merge
with solid ground.

No defiance here.
No alien particle

forced

beneath serpentine skin.
No false spin
of  protection.

The body is the pearl
and her only

design

the desire

of the spine.

© 1995 Patricia A Burke. All Rights Reserved