Bone People
Bone People "E nga iwi o nga iwi" (O the people of the bones) Keri Hulme, "The Bone People" 1984 "proximity can create transformation", Ocean Vuong. Flat on our backs we become aware of breath feeling the body parts that are touching the mat Heel pelvis scapula base of the skull a proximity promoting a desire for transformation Rolling to the side we kneel upright in vajrasana I open my eyes a young man opposite is wearing a necklace From the silver chain hangs what seems a shark tooth which is also a part having proximity with bone I allow my eyes to close but the bones persist Dry bones can hurt no one a chapel and graves where only the wind blows while the flesh rots the bones forgot We move into shavasana how does my body feel? we lie like corpses the dead-still pose I shall decompose my eyes in a dark flower my heart in the ash tree my tongue in dry-leafed autumn Bones will become calcite rock "Then how Oh Lord Shiva with such disparity will you reassemble me?" There was a time when the flesh was gone the ossuary preserved the sacred bones In sky burial the stone-circle men laid out the dead Sea Eagle left only the white bone as she strong-winged her flight and soared into the light Or they laid the bones of cattle whose flesh they'd burned and eaten next to human bone under the sacred stones of Brodgar A sacred proximity of Eagle bone and skull in the chambered cairn that is the tomb in Ronaldsey We remove our socks I stand a bare rooted tree "E nga iwi o nga iwi" (what does this Maori language mean?) my white fleshless feet phalanges scried for meaning Watches rings and personal stuff form small heaps by the mats as we rise for the salutation to the sun the chained tooth left on Talisman of transformation it rests on his sternum a comfortable affinity bone next to bone
The Hug of Gaia 
Sorry that some nice comments got wiped off becuase I re posted “Bone People” due to the fact that the word processing was all wrong…as you can probably see if you were here before.
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Tony, this poem hallows my yoga practice and comforts me in a most elemental way. Suffused with Nature’s inherent spirituality, your work often seems in a direct line with that of Gary Snyder:
*When creeks are full The poems flow When creeks are down We heap stones.* – from “Civilization
*Everywhere is falling everywhere. – *Rumi
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Thank you Beth. Yes I like Gary Snyder a lot. Have a few of his books here. We need a a festival of American writers. I have been dsturbed by the writing of Ocean Vuong… the horror of contemporary American urban life …. I find some of his images hard to comprehend … is that because of our cultural or
eonomic divide ?
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These verses are tumbling in me now. Bone on bone. Shavasana. We’re just visiting, after all.
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