Bodies and Voices: Flight Plan

Photo: CC by *clairity*

Flight Plan

BY MAGAZINE COLUMNIST CARYN MIRRIAM-GOLDBERG

This is my heart. It trills
like any bird but mostly
like a cardinal on a rusting swing set.
Winter, and it glows a quick burst of red
against white sky and land.
Summer, and it calls out
just occasionally, an alarm
in the greenery. It fears all
that grows like grass,
which is unfortunate considering
how life grows like grass
resistant to mowing or fire.
My heart longs for song from
another or it sings enchanted
with its own mechanics.
My heart breaks like flight
and lands speedily
across form itself,
perched in the dark, alert
day or night, mated or
lonely, old or young,
my heart never leaves the nest
of this body and yet
travels like weather
in its trembling imagination.
My heart lightnings down
into the still or ruffled waters
of dusk. My heart opens
in a morning lake, reflecting
the fire that comes.

Writing Prompt

Using the phrase, My heart… start making a list of all your heart does, aiming for specific details (images you can see, hear, taste, touch or smell).

Beginning a writing practice? Getting started, groundrules to free you, and podcasts of other writing prompts. Visit Caryn’s Write From Your Life page (http://carynmirriamgoldberg.wordpress.com/write-from-your-life/)

© 2011, The Magazine of Yoga, LLC.