A Poem for Half Moon Pose

What does radical self-love look like for you?

Half Moon Pose (Ardha Chandrasana) by Benjavisa Ruangvaree.

This poem for Half Moon Pose is in honor of how, in this movement, we can embody the power and the pull of both the sun and the moon—

and balance all the crazy beautiful masculine and feminine energies spiraling within us.

It is an invitation to take on - at least for a moment - a feeling of radical self-acceptance. For where you are at right now. Even if you shake or fall or have an injury or ache that may hinder where your imagination wants to go.

It is like I explored in my post about Warrior III, to give yourself the space to take a small risk and strive slowly towards what seems impossible… until it no longer seems impossible, but in reach.

And even if you don’t practice yoga, I invite you to contemplate the idea that if the sun, who is powerful and scary and so needed and the moon, who is imperfectly perfect and has inspired more poems or poetic moments than I can name… are both equally worthy of love and awe, then why not you? Why not me? Why not each and every one of us?

Every time I re-read this poem, it is like I need it all over again. Need permission to just sink into total self-love, my counter arguments disarmed, my heart opened and sighing as it learns to love just a little more every day.

Photo by Paolo Lentini on Unsplash

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Half Moon Pose

by Corie Feiner


With my right leg and hand trembling 
on the floor and my left foot lifted into the 
dark sky, I gaze at my open palm above me 

as if it was shimmering, as if I was part
celestial. My heart and hips open to the possibility 
that everything that always seemed to be separate 

is really working together as one. I hold myself 
from my center and can no longer tell 
if I am waxing or waning or if I am a reflection 
of some other light. 

I breathe and accept that sometimes my beauty 
can be pocked with craters and what seem to be 
dried up seas. But that if I am a half moon, 

then I am also a half sun and I am worthy 
of being gazed upon with curiosity and wonder 
no matter how I look in the sky. 



Sanskrit Name: Ardha Chandrasana 

My dear paid subscribers can listen to an audio version of Half Moon Pose here.

…I’ve realized the full pose is how your individual body can do the pose now, not some picture-perfect image you might see on Instagram. Each version of the pose is the full pose for that person! — Jacquie Bullard

To Learn More About Half Moon Pose

I am excited to have collaborated with fellow Substack yoga mama writer, Jacquie Bullard, who has created this inspiring post and video tutorial about Half Moon pose on her Substack

Urban Yoga Mama

.

I encourage you to check it out and subscribe to her Substack to support her work.

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If you want to read more of my celestial yoga poems, you can go here:

A Poem for Star Pose

Starshine Salutation Yoga Poetry Sequence {audio for free + paid subscribers}

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Artwork by Lotus Mountain