Songs for the Water Dragon / Poems for Plants & Planets / and Others

By Isabeau Vollhardt

This volume of poetry contains three different chapters. Songs for the Water Dragon are a diary of experiences following Shui Long (Water Dragon) qi gong practice, with each poem referencing the place and date of the practice. Shui Long is a Mongolian/Buryat form of qi gong with shamanic roots, requiring physical communion with water, fire (or sun), and wind. The second chapter: Poems for Plants and Planets were poems written during the same time, as Shui Long practice often opens up a practitioner's creativity and perception of the natural world. The third chapter, "Others" contains poems about love, relationship, changes in the natural world, and one poem of much more recent composition that is the result of personal insight into past trauma.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Isabeau Vollhardt
• Release date: Jul 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463168493

Isabeau Vollhardt

Isabeau Vollhardt received her Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and English Composition from the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, in 1980, where she studied Novel Writing with Charles Johnson, and the Philosophy of Science Fiction with Michelle Beer. She was exposed to the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke in a class on Existentialism presented by Eva Hagemeyer. A longtime reader of Victorian era authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, she was writing The Casebook of Elisha Grey in part as an homage to Doyle and in part as a result of her readings of esoteric works on Atlantis, when she began studies at Samra University of Oriental Medicine in 1991. Graduating with a Masters of Science in Oriental Medicine and receiving licensure to practice acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, she then went on to receive training in Reiki, reaching level IV (Seichem) Reiki training. Energy work and intuitive work in a variety of realms have been part of her personal and professional life since 1985 and encompasses study of Kuang Ping style taijiquan, shuilong qi gong, feng shui, clairvoyancy, Western Astrology, Native American journeywork, and Iai-Batto-Ho. Her experiences resulting from her shui long qi gong practice resulted in a volume of poetry which is now published: Songs of the Water Dragon / Poems for Plants & Planets / and Others. She lives in Ashland, Oregon, where she has practiced Chinese Medicine and taught tai chi, qi gong, and Chinese Medicine theory since 1997. Her short story "Farewell at a Graveside" was published by Innisfree Magazine in 1990. She continues writing with her focus on speculative fiction, and an occasional poem, because 'poems happen'.www.facebook.com/pages/TheCasebookOfElishaGreywww.facebook.com/pages/IsabeauVollhardtEarthboundMysticwww.isabeauvollhardt.netwww.imdb.com/isabeauvollhardt

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songs for the water dragon

poems for plants & planets

and others

By Isabeau Vollhardt

Published by Isabeau Vollhardt at Smashwords

Copyright 2019 Isabeau Vollhardt

Cover image copyright 2019 Isabeau Vollhardt

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songs for the water dragon

Dive Poem #1

what woman crochets

light lace netting the lake

with fire from the closest star?

it floats and sinks.

dances and glitters

in wind and water…

a thousand vessels

capture eternal yang ming

feeding qi and blood

in the muck of the shore

in the woods of the mountains

in the moss on the bark

in the flesh on my bones

in the heart of my spirit

its bridge to my will

captured by the moving mirror

reflecting blue heaven

in a field of dancing diamonds.

Howard Prairie Lake, Oregon, June 1999

Water and Wind Woven

water and wind

woven with one weaver’s hand

seamless sky-lake robe

whose fibers flow

from without to within me,

filamental stems…

or soft silk wrappings,

cocooning us together

in symbiotic

rest; waiting to fly

with new wet wings

the flowing fibers

stream within and without

cradling us together

in one silk cocoon;

we wait, rapt, wrapped for the change,

suspended as one;

we sleep, breathe in tandem;

the chrysalis shelters us

as we metamorphose…

our wet wings folded,

limbs entertwined in embrace

we rouse in spring’s dark,

and roll within our silk

sanctuary spun in fall

when flight was a dream,

unfurled wings a vision

of being carried by the wind

through the sun’s warm waves…

flowing silk

enfolded our vision

within a rapt, sheltering embrace

as we transformed autumn’s dream

into summer’s maiden voyage

on pristine wings.

Howard Prairie Lake, Oregon, July 1999

Polished

she polished me with a current so strong

only my will could keep my footing

she polished me in the sun and the wind

as she tumbled through the mountain valley

to the ocean in the west.

i stood my ground on round, smooth stones

and she polished me while i sat in her waters,

with hands before my heart,

feet firmly planted, back to her pressing,

to dive and descend into her running, her coursing,

her flowing, her carving – her force

flowed around my back

as if i had become a stone.

i dove, each time touching the stones she polished,

each time carried along on her compelling journey…

until, after my fifth ascent,

i found i had to struggle

to reach the riverbank,

against her force

against her onslaught

against her weight

against her solidity

against her heaviness

i became a tree with roots to anchor my steps

i became a steel prow to cut through her current

i became a stone to let her slide around my limbs

i became a warrior marching up a level hill

on land submerged

on rocks round as orbs from being polished…

then i basked in the wind and sun,

nestled in spaces between rocks and roots

perfectly formed for the curves of my back…

sitting up, i knew my world had washed away,

so i stumbled to the parched grass,

golden tinder from summer sun,

and soaked in that warmth

mixing it with the elusive warmth

within the river’s cold current.

at last i stood to greet the wind,

moving my limbs in concert with its flow

to explore the full and empty,

above and below, before and behind,

yesterday and tomorrow,

now and eternity,

and sensed within its breathing

a charging current washing the spaces in my skin

left empty by years of my own blood running…

i arrived home, and found that i was polished…

Applegate River, Oregon, August 1999

Scrying

i scry eternity in a brass bowl

lit by one candle

and see rings of fire

like those that descended

to wrap around my skin

as i stood in cold water in wonder,

in the deep now, in awe of the life,

the energy washing me as i rose up