Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The snake pose

I headed down to the pool this morning to do my yoga by the water and my dog wouldn't stop barking. I kept telling him to hush. He wouldn't. So I went over to see what the fuss was about. At the other end of the pool on the warn concrete was a black rat snake. It was a couple feet long and half settled into a crack in the concrete. I left it there and returned to the warrior pose and my dog seemed satisfied having shown me the intruder. It got me thinking though. The way that the snake's body twisted and turned. I have scoliosis and my back feels like a snake sometimes, twisted and curled, which is why I started doing yoga. I wanted to somehow straighten my back, strengthen it and lengthen it so that my back won't hump over and make me one of those hunchback ladies that I've seen growing up who can't reach their own hair to brush it. This snake gave me a great visual to use while doing my poses, imagining my back like a snake, muscular and able to unfurl itself from its gnarled twist.
Maybe that's why many of my pieces have snaking curves. It's my subconscious trying to balance my twisting and curving spine. Whatever the case may be, mine will be a lifelong struggle to keep my back from collapsing on itself. So I suppose I will continue making writhing serpentine pieces of copper and metal.

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