While my monthly writing for Push Hands Now is dedicated to making sense of tai chi, allow me to surrender momentarily to its mystery. World Tai Chi Day, the last Saturday of each April, arrives during Earth Month, twinning Earth Day. In this poem, I contemplate the dynamic phases of each movement, imagining these two initiatives playing together. -Ilona Bito
Song of 15G Tai Chi (Twenty Twenty For All)
One End Poverty
to root, sleepy in preparation then more
than waking up in the angling cycle’s execution, vital
beginning
Two Eliminate Hunger.
Turn in hush, “no, no” night night,
lights on “yes, yes, yes” to mine own’s first step, second,
carry a ball
Third Improve Health.
Think sink in in the heart’s twisted arch
nodding on off on a rocker on the strongest toe
ward off right
Four Making Education Available.
Floor time pour thine libations on her
and the first digit recruiting the rest unstops the screwtop. Fingers
ward off left
Five, Achieve Gender Equality.
Here, drink my rib. In the nest, underwings, egg shapes
up there where the unhinged hooks hang
roll away
Six, Clean Water
test well and tap, organs’ court stands on the Earth, the less you see
(limbs float on the current surface), the more there is.
press
7 Ensure Sustainable Energy
A pig in the mud, a cheek on the teat, an acorn’s antenna
roots up to uproot. Will keep it in the ground while a wheel, free,
push
Eight. Promote Inclusive Economy
work winding up towards each’s streamlines pre
dawn, winding down by (common sensate compensate) sunset.
eagle’s beak
Out of 10, 9. Build Sustainable Industries
Re: Intrinsic Sun, Inguinal Kua capsized
The acetabulum meridian of a nematode sucks
single whip
Ten Reduce Inequalities
Already in to it. Sit down
and stand up. Understating outstanding.
play the guitar right
Eleven Make Cities Sustainable
overseeing footprints, scanning the bike lane
eyes on coming traffic, on the horizon.
shoulder brush
Twelve Encourage Sustainable Consumption
trade in assumptions, empty out temptations
scaffold a toddler with a pinky only
white crane cools its wings
Thirteen Slow Climate Change
don’t wake the baby, listen on thin ice
thawing is a raw smell reaching hounds
brush knee
Fourteen Protect the Oceans
laying out an empty firehose tall ship turning in an eddy
on the faucet as far as you can see unbelievably endable
play the guitar left
Fifteen Protect Biodiversity
in the yin phase exhale give everything to
how to breathe full fill rhythm for all.
embracing the heart
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goals
Earth Month Happenings: https://taproottaichi.com/newsletters/
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