On this very summery Berkeley day, 12 students flitted and rolled and navigated with white canes into the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program's Fitness Center (housed at ERC). Nancy has been an adaptive yoga teacher for many years--working with seniors and folks in the disability community. primarily, she has adapted much of yoga instruction for people who are blind or low vision. She asked me to collaborate with her and use my Write To Connect skills to weave poetry in to a yoga class for people with mixed abilities. I felt like this was fitting. Many people cannot make their bodies into the shapes traditional yoga poses seem to ask of us. Just so, many folks struggle to understand or appreciate poetry. But there is a sea of breath and language in any body or mind's pattern of moving about or thinking in the world. So, why not bring poetry into the flowing realm of movement that is the yoga studio, outside of language. And why not bring the demanding movements in

The Poetry in Motion poetry-yoga workshop is tomorrow. Here are some instructions for getting into the building. Street address is 3075 Adeline St. Note: One of the elevator entrances is closed on weekends and you cannot enter from the front of the ERC campus. Follow our directions to get in OR call us when you arrive at BART and we will escort you up.  Just call Amber on  415-867-1124 . In addition, we will also be going down to BART 10 minutes before class to look for anyone who might be lost. It is a busy, bustling environment at Ashby BART, but is a safe and secure environment. Here is how you get in:    No Street Crossings via BART  - Easy   For wheelchair users and non wheelchair users     1. Go thru BART turnstile and take the elevator that leads directly to 3075 Adeline. Their is another elevator to the left of that one (up a ramp) BUT that one will be locked.     2. Once you are above ground, do not turn left and try to enter the front doors of the ERC campus.     3. Turn

Nancy Yates --my co-teacher for this coming Saturday's Poetry in Motion, poe-yoga workshop --has written an article as part of a training she gave to yoga instructors. It is called "Illuminating the Possibilities" and it is  about adapting the practice of yoga instruction for students with visual impairments. Here are some of her guidelines from the article: --don't omit: adapt when possible --the mat gives a student their own private space; they can feel freer with movements These guidelines read like lines in a poem to me. They undulate and take on light. I like thinking about the yoga mat as a blank page. How the blank page can be adapted, especially at times when it is not possible to have words for things, or perhaps, there are too many words. The mat/page can become a small clear pool where we can float. And where what can't be written can be translated into sinking/rising, an experiment in (resting lightly upon) language--which is a surface. An effor

A list can be the things ome can or cannot accomplish in a day. A list of question to ask the doctor, to resolve while on the phone with the pharmacy or the health insurance company. A list can be a gentle reminder of things to notice about the weather--so as to poise yourself right on the cusp of spring. A poem can be a list. A list can be a set on instructions to write a poem. For example, this list By Bhanu Kapil:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2012/04/how-to-write-a-poem/ 13. Invent a form that allows fragments to have their own life.  To recombine.  Or perhaps to simply die off, emitting  pink, luminous flares just beyond the range of a society’s vision. Today, Nancy and I sat down to start planning for our Poetry in Motion class--set for 4/21, the Spring Equinox.  We are inventing a form that allows for all types of bodies to find their breath, through lines of poems and yoga, in a room. Come, be pink luminous flares with us! Bring your fragmentary bodies, your f