The Cook -

A poetic retrospective of my Ormond Road house country Kitchen

The cook’s companion,
Who is that?
Do they sit around and give orders, while the porcelain birds on the shelve sing;
Do they finger through the bible-like pages, chubby fingers, oiled and sticky with time,
Are they invisible to the eye, but not to the sensation of imagination,
Are they free?
Can they transcend the recipe, mix it up, and let the music inspire them -

‘What did you say? Sorry I didn’t hear that’
The angel in the painting never moves, the angel tells me -
‘Communion will save your soul’
I don’t believe her; she doesn’t have chubby fingers -
Although she is oily from years of leaning against the wall, above the gas stove top,
That gives her some credit, because she is loyal, and persistent,
I think I like that about her;

They shouldn’t tell me what to do; it won’t serve that measurement,
In that glass, see-through it, can you?

The black cats dance on the mobile, there are four of them, that’s a unit,
Lucky for some, but I want to ask them if it gets tiresome, staying in that same place.

I might get some chopsticks out of the red vase, and put them in my hair, layer it on top of my head, draw it up and around, use the chopsticks to keep it all in place, crisscrossed, over each other, what a treat;
The angel won’t even notice they are missing.

What a delight to have a companion in my kitchen, to share, raise my spirit, come my black women dance with the black cats, sing with the porcelain birds on the shelve;

They look like they are kissing.

guilt & the hips

Today my practice was a form of Yoga called Yin Yoga.
This is very different from the 'style' of yoga I usually practice which is very yang in nature and powerful, Yin Yoga is much more aligned with the way I teach, and has the oriental undercurrent.
Working on the hips got me to thinking about how much guilt is stored in a deep emotional level, in the hip and pelvis, especially for women, this is something that has been 'agreed' on as a collective in society, so it becomes very obvious the more aware of it we become.
The Earth element in our bodies needs nurturing, it needs time to settle in, to find it's containment, contentment and boundary's.
When we hold a hip opener posture or shape for a time and breath into that space, it untucks and unfolds the holding pattern sitting in the dark places of the pelvis, if we follow the lead of the breath and imagine the light or sunshine in that space, reaching in with love and forgiveness and filling it up, it gives permission for us to 'feel' out the emotions - the guilt, it allows us to own it or not, to question weather it is ours or not? It gives us a moment in our 'now' to capture the freedom of which is innately ours, in our body, our breath, our mind, our spirit. And from the experience of that expression we can go back there again and again.