Dressage: A poem by Jane Clarke

Dressage

You find your seat by riding

without saddle or reins,

sit deep, fall off, get on again.

Give and take with lightness

of hand and leg, shift your weight

as you feel how she needs to move.

You find your rhythm by listening

to the sequence of hoofs,

count the beat of every stride.

Learn to read how she holds her head;

when to steady,

when to ask her to lengthen her pace

so the moment between lifting and falling

is held, sometimes so long

that together you don’t touch the ground.

Jane Clarke

Original post: Irish Group Analytic Society