'St. James, you melt me.

YOGA ALUMNAE
MAYA ANGELOU

A Lotus, A Cobra, A Downward-Facing
Dog,
Names of positions long since mastered,
Marked on your
exams.

You, created only a little saner than
The Moonies, have
crouched eight weeks in
The candlelit classroom,
Have lain as
long
Facedown in extreme pain,
Your mouths spilling chants
Learned
phonetically.

The Instructor cries out today, you may stand on your
head,
But do not hurt your neck.

Each of you a spacy
hippie,
Delicate and spookily thin,
From eating nothing but miso
soup.
Yes, today I call you to your classrooms,
And you will study yoga no
more. Come,
Clad in leotards and I will play the music
The CD Store Guy
gave to me when I asked if
He had any John Tesh.

So teach the
Yuppie, the Muscle Boy, the Geek,
The Working Mom and the Scary Punk
Squatter, the Clique,
The Wannabe, the Hipster, the Star, the Snob,
The
Pickup Artist, the Model, the Slob.
They stretch. They all stretch
The
muscles of the Soul.

Come to me, here beside the Exercise
Mat.
Plant your shoes in a locker, sit beside the Exercise
Mat.

Each of you, graduate of some passed
Two-month course, has
been paid for.

Here on the pulse of this new day
May you have
the grace under pressure to look
Straight into your student’s eyes,
into
Your pupil’s face, your acolyte
And say simply
Very simply
With
hope—
I’m sorry you threw your back out, please for the love of God don’t sue
me.

I WILL ALARM ISLAMIC OWLS
WILLIAM CARLOS
WILLIAMS

I will be alarming
the Islamic owls
that are
in
the barn

and which
you warned me
are very
jittery
and susceptible to loud noises

Forgive me
they see so
well in the dark
so feathery
and so dedicated to Allah