Today is about the other side of the body, Golden Pheasant Stands on Right Leg. In essence, this is the same as yesterday’s movement, just with a switch from the right side lifting, to the left side lifting.  Easy, right? Except yesterday’s poem took me all day to write.  Not sure that today is going to be all that much easier.

With all your weight planted in the right foot,
lift the left leg until the toes point down,
and thigh runs parallel to floor.  Your butt
gets tucked under; the spine (as should be known)
should be lengthened.  As the left knee rises,
left arm also lifts, parallel to thigh.
Left hand points to sky, the form advises,
fingers and palm flattened — I know not why.
The movement protects the left side from blows,
defending the line of the abs and crotch;
and the hand sweep can block the cheek and nose.
The knee can strike, though, and take down a notch
any who stand near.  Or the leg can kick —
but keep the leg high so the move can stick.

Yeah, not really happy with this one.  Oh, well. Sometimes, as we say in the poetry world (or as we used to say in poetry), you applaud because the poem is good; sometimes we applaud because it’s over.  So where are we in this challenge now?

Let’s see…

• Opening, circled hands, ward off left, ward off right, 
• roll back, press, push, single whip, stand like tree, shoulder strike, white heron spreads wings, brush knee/twist step, playing pipah, brush knee/twist step, grab needle at the sea floor, spread hands like fan, throat strike, retreat to the mountain camp, 19) false close, (I had to make a number of changes in the order of movements here… why did I get it so wrong?)
• roll back, press, push, single whip, snake creeps down, golden pheasant left, golden pheasant right, 27) kick left, kick right, half-spin, kick with heel, bounce the baby, box ears with fists, ward off left, ward off right,
• roll back, press, push, single whip, Buddha’s twist (not its name but what I called it after I couldn’t remember its name), 40) step back to drive the monkey away, cloud hands, spiral inward, diagonal single whip, elbow defense, fair lady works the shuttles 1, fair lady works the shuttles 2, fair lady works the shuttles 3, fair lady works the shuttles 4, ward off left, ward off right,
• roll back, press, push, single whip, step to the seven stars, bend the bow, double fist, ride the tiger, full spin, windmill kick, 60) left-hand push, 61) closing.

I thought I was at the halfway point today.  But it turns out that I still have to finish up through Bounce the Baby before I’m at the halfway point.  That means trying to finish up through next Wednesday before I’m to the halfway point, assuming I don’t take a break from the writing.

I finished Kathleen Norris’s book, Accidie and Me; I’m going to try writing a review of it sometime soon.

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