Month: May 2017

The Lanyard

Post author By Kay T. Ananda
Post date May 14, 2017

This one in blue and green …

Mother’s Day

Post author By Kay T. Ananda
Post date May 13, 2017

The Lanyard
The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly-
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-clothes on my forehead,
and then led me out into the air light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift – not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-toned lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.
– – Billy Collins

Yoga

To capture Adho Mukha Svanasana

Post author By Kay T. Ananda
Post date May 11, 2017

Camera followed this dog but missed the shot when she striked a luxurious looking Adho Mukha Svsnasana … soooo cute … it’s a whole body stretch pose the dog starts out with upon rising. Awakening her ‘hinds, the glutes, the hamstrings, lengthening her back and stretching out the paws, strength building the shoulders and arms. Tail relaxed; ears softened … In so tweaking, she gets a goofy look, almost an inebriated look of satisfaction, relishing the slow deep stretch.

Thank you for this treat, Friend !
a banana pose? side-lying savasana

Breath of Fire?She curls up into a ball to rest and then uncurl to stand and then … a huge stretch into a down dog – s – t – rrrrr – e – t – c – hhhhh – then into a an updog – Urdhva mukha śvānāsana – to awaken and lengthen the body – sorry. Don’t feel like a demo now. Too busy observing what’s out the window – the sun, the sky, the green grass, the trees, there’s a whole world out there to explore – yes?