photo © Burnham Arndt

from the March 1999 issue
of BreakthroughOnSkis.com

Powder
Yoga

We are breaking all the rules.

There are no positions, no asanas.

But in all this crazy movement:

tumbling, falling, flowing

down the mountain, exploding

through cornices, jumping

over sudden bumps & smashing

the edges of our skis into hard ice–

there is something inside us

which moves less & less,

slows & finally stops.

It happens first in powder:

you float motionless

above both skis & skier,

inside, above & below the snow,

watching yourself make perfect turns,

not just in snow, through time

& frosty air: You have let go

of your skis, & at last, they obey.

Neither gravity nor friction

nor muscles make them turn,

but only love - powder yoga.

Motionless motion, timeless time,

high-speed quiet, high-tension repose:

the self no longer skis, no up, no down,

no discipline, no freedom, no contradiction.

Eventually we surprise ourselves

doing powder yoga through the bumps,

in crusty snow or junk,

on blue ice, & one day

even after we kick off our skis.

© Lito Tejada-Flores