Lights off, the forest is still. All the old trees
lie on their side or still stand, vine entwined.
The wind picks up a scent: blue car, midnight,
open windows up and down hills
in the pulse of travel.

Do you hear how thunder is always on the in breath,
glimpse of great blue heron on the out breath?
Do you know how our arms sing like sunlight
through the hinge of an open door?

The wind picks up, expanding my chest.
Without moving, I let myself land deeper
on the bamboo floor, the cement foundation,
the dirt and rock, the underground rivers
that holds the shadow side of my legs and spine.
The field between shoulders cradles the breath.

On the line my mind threads,
the bird that I call my heart,
finally lands, so grateful to be home,
before rising into the tumble of other birds
and the thunder over the ridge of light.

 

—
Reprinted with permission from Following the Curve by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Sparatan Press, 2017

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Ph.D., the 2009-13 Kansas Poet Laureate is the author of over two dozen books, including most recently Miriam’s Well, a novel; Everyday Magic; and the award-winning Chasing Weather: Tornadoes, Tempests, and Thunderous Skies in Word and Image with weather chaser Stephen Locke. She curates 150KansasPoems.Wordpress.com, out of which three anthologies have been published, including the recent Kansas Time + Place, co-edited with Roy Beckemeyer. She’s co-editor of Konza: A Bioregional Journal on Living in Place. Founder of Transformative Language Arts at Goddard College where she teaches, Mirriam-Goldberg leads writing workshops widely, and with singer Kelley Hunt, writing and singing retreats.

Caryn completed the Bhaktivana Yoga with Heart teaching training program with Gopi Sandal, and Anna Guest-Jelly’s certification in teaching Curvy Yoga. She regularly studies with Anne Underwood at the Yoga Center of Lawrence, and with the sky, trees, and prairies in her backyard. Find Caryn on her website, Twitter, and Instagram.