Marcel – Jan 20, 2022 Iyengar Level II & I

For Backbends - How do you “see” when you can’t use your eyes? BKS Iyengar would say we should become more sensitive, that “Every pore should be an eye.” Made me reach for this piece from Proust. I think our asanas should “sparkle” if every pore is an eye.

I OFTEN CONTEMPLATE

MY MEMORY'S SKIES

Time erases all just as the waves

Efface the children's castles on the beach

We'll forget these words so precise, so vague

Still sensing the infinite behind each.

Time effaces all it does not erase the eyes

Be they of star, clear water, or opal

As rich in the skies or on the jeweler's table

They flame for us, joyous or sadly wise.

The joyous, flown from their living bevels,

Will pierce my heart with their gem-hard glints

As on the day they were set in their lids

Gleaming with a precious, deceptive sparkle.

…