A New Version--Upavistha Konasana

Upavistha Konasana--Revolved Seated Angle Posture
At the reptile house I watched
with curiosity a two-headed
black snake, one head straining
to the left, the other straight,
a strategy that failed.
In this pose, each leg
stretches its own way,
parsing space like calipers,
and yet the spine, braided through
with thorns, becomes a stem
to hold all wayward parts
in check. I bow forward, pale
bloom bending in a breeze,
to honor each in turn.

Torah Group Tuesday

Last night the Torah group met again. It was a nominally momentous occasion, as we were beginning a new book: Numbers. The English name of this book is "Numbers," that is, because it begins with a census, but the Hebrew name means "in the wilderness." The parashah we went over last night was largely a rehash of things we'd touched on before, such as the reluctance to allow people to be counted. This reluctance seems to survive even today, though for different reasons. One always hears of census workers who are shot at or killed in the course of their duties because of illegal aliens fearing they'll be found out or criminals hiding out and trying to stay hidden, etc. One would think then that shooting at a census worker would attract MORE unwelcome attention rather than less, but I suppose criminals are generally not known for their foresight.
The book was full of epic catalogues and formulas describing how each tribe lined up and displayed its colors and then how the Levites lined up, in their thousands, to be counted. There had to be a separate counting for the two groups because the first counting was for military conscription purposes, and the Levites, bound to the temple, were not to serve in the military or work in other occupations unrelated to the temple. In fact, the taxes went to support this latter group.
It struck me while we were reading over and discussing this hodgepodge of information that I know now where Melville got his idea for Moby Dick, since it so precisely mirrors the almanac-like structure of the Torah--a little history, some law, taxonomy, etc. ... .

Om the fish needs a new home

Does anyone want to adopt Om? I would. I have an empty aquarium I could keep him in, but my cats would love to swim with the fishes, so I don't want to chance it.

Jeremy has some sort of illness

I am concerned about Jeremy. He is getting sick, which is probably not surprising because he hasn't slept much in the past few days: he worked till midnight Saturday and worked from early in the morning Sunday, then stayed out till 2. Yesterday he was sneezing and tired. His head felt heavy. I dosed him up with aspirin and vitamin C in the form of tangerines. He is coughing this morning. I just told him to stay home from school and hope it will help.
Here is another yoga poem:
Upavistha Konasana--Revolved Seated Angle Posture

At the zoo I saw a snake
whose two heads, to the
left and straight ahead,
each insisted that the rest
follow its lead, a strategy
that failed.
In this pose,
my legs each stretch
a different way, parsing
space like calipers,
and yet the spine's
intelligence holds them in check
as I bow forward,
honoring each leg in turn.

Niralumba Redux

Here's a rewrite:
Niralumba--Unsupported Shoulder Stand

The earth hangs in space.
No guide wires, not even
the thinnest, suspend
this green-blue bauble
from the sky. My body
also has its gravity, propelled
by breath, unfurling
like a fiddlehead,
head down and backward,
open fingers grasping
only air. If breath
should flutter, I would fail
instead of folding
inward, like a snail.

Back to the Car

Today, with any luck, I will turn in my rental car and get back my newly painted and repaired car. I hope there is no problem in the future with insurance since that collision was not at all my fault. The problem was that the chipped paint on the back bumper worsened when the SUV hit me, and the collision place decided my whole bumper needed to be replaced and the car repainted. I told them that the chipped paint had been chipped (though not quite as badly) before the collision, but they said that the angle of the collision made it necessary to replace the bumper anyhow and the side panel had to match the paint on the rest of the car, so the whole car had to be painted, so they can't say I didn't tell them I had had a previous accident I didn't go to AAA for. It cost a bundle, so I wouldn't be surprised if those people who backed into me contest it.

New Poem in the Yoga Series

Tell me what you think of this one.
Niralumba into karnapidasan on the wall-- Unsupported shoulder stand with a chair
to ear pressure pose at the wall

The earth hangs
suspended in space.
No guide wires, not even
the thinnest, suspend
this green-blue bauble
from the sky.
Likewise, the body,
propelled only by breath
to land head down
and backwards from the chair,
unfurls like a fiddlehead,
and then, a time lapse
in reverse, spirals shut,
a snail's shell, on the wall.