The Vital Force Archive

Joe Michaud's poem watches a woman practising in silence, her liquid smoothness and unspent strength drawing onlookers into the flow until the dance dances the woman.

Joe Michaud's poem sets moment-to-moment dying and reviving beside Master Chang's butterfly dream and two fish chasing tails, followed by five Pyramid Poems written in thanks to Justin Stone.

Joe Michaud's short poem watches a woman move through T'ai Chi Chih with liquid smoothness and unspent strength, ending on the turn that the dance dances the woman.

Joe Michaud's poem moves from moment-to-moment dying and returning to life, to Master Chang's butterfly dream, to the two dark and light fish chasing each other's tails, ending with a koan-like demand.

Adria Neumann maps her T'ai Chi Chih practice onto four life stages, from a tree-rooted childhood grounded in the bubbling spring to the stability and clear thinking of seniorhood.

A pyramid poem by Adria Newman of Dubuque, Iowa, tracing chi from grounded roots up the spine to the crown and back down, generating strength and peace to share.

Esther Kieffer reports 21 students since October in Cedar Falls and describes starting each day in her preschool classroom for children with handicaps with Rocking Motion to Fragrance of a Dream.