Headstand Poem

My friend Bev told me I should post this poem on my blog.  It was written by our very own, Anna Lucas, who has come to my yoga classes for 7+ years. We had been working on headstand for months at Tuesday night yoga and one day, she gave me this gift of a poem.  Anna is a wonderful poet, and has a chap book coming out in May 2012.  Here's the poem.... any of you who are working on headstand can surely identify with the words in her poem.  Thanks, Anna!!!

HEADSTAND

After months of bumping
my heels and other parts
against the wall,

after countless graceless
falls to the mat, after conquering
my aversion to inversions,

working through the seiche
that kept the room spinning
and my eyes closed,

after reminding myself
over and over to Breathe,
dammit, breathe...

And all the while my body argued,
These girly arms, this egg of a skull
weren't meant to sustain

the weight of a middle-aged
woman.  And the legs, the feet,
look how they flail, frantic to stay afloat

But one day I found it--a coupling
of lightness and strength,
hips balanced over shoulders,

spine straight but relaxed,
body suspended between floor
and ceiling, ceiling and floor.

Anna Bellamy Lucas
2011