Andrew

Tai Chi Y3D126: circling hands

I began my day today with a bit of a poetic exercise, so I’m a bit behind on my tai chi.  Time to get to work.  It was good tai chi practice today, fairly breathless in a sense — I went faster than I should, and harder than I’m used to; and it’s already hot here.  Not a good combination, really. But I got the work done.  Yesterday I wrote a poem about the opening posture; today I’m writing about posture two: circling the hands.

Both hands rise up to the height of the shoulders,
while feet, planted firm, stand shoulder-width wide.
The hands retreat, like a pair of soldiers
on guard, overrun by opposing side.
Ere they retreat all the way to the chest,
they stop and resist; and the knees sink low.
The hands remain just a moment at rest,
then they, too, press downward, following flow
of chi — that eternally-living flame.
The knees unbend and the body ascends,
though hands still press opponent down in shame,
’til fingers impress with their last extends,
how direct forward motion does not land,
but tumbles down by the circling hand.

Meh.  Not my best effort. Not bad, but not necessarily good.  Do you, dear reader, follow the action? Can you do the movement? If you can, then I suppose that’s good; but my suspicion is that you’d need to see the movement demonstrated as well as hear the poem recited.

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