Imagination and Breath
In this dream-like prose-poem, Cory evokes the sensuousness of embodied and relational breathing.
May, 2019
Imagine you are an artist of breath, a master. At an early age you became enchanted with the sensation and pleasure of breathing, and ever since, you have been tending breath, and it has been tending you, with conscious affection. Imagine you have spent your life studying the science of breath, the breathing practices of many religious traditions, and created your own. You feel the exact inception of each inhale, the hand of the spirit of life come into and caress you; your lungs opening to sphere in your chest, back, sides, and belly as you ride breath up to its peak, suspend and float motionless, before sliding down the exhalation all the way to its resting place in another momentary stillness before rising again. You experience breath as ocean waves that lift and gently set back down the raft of you. You know that no two breaths are alike and are loathe to miss one.
Imagine you have known breath from a high windy cliff over looking the white-capped ocean, walked with it in lush fern lowlands, and come to stillness with breath in the crush and streaming city. You have remembered it under noon, moon lit, and morning skies, and felt yourself share it with oaks and lovers. You are curious about the scent of things and are a connoisseur of dry leaves, sandalwood, cinnamon, and musk. You come to breath at sleep and sometimes, waking in bed long before the sun when a dream bridges the worlds; you offer your breath and self an open hand rising, falling, and resting on the skin of your full heart chest.
You have been present to breath in both grief and joy. For you, breath is a sine wave between earth and sky on which you are carried. It floods your lungs, heart, and soul in equal measure. You are good friends.
One day, enjoying time with a human friend, and after some silence, she leans in close to your ear and whispers:
“Your breathing, It’s exquisite.”
Let that sink in for a while, and then consider this question:
How would you be breathing to elicit such a response?
Answer with that very breath.
