Walking into Walls

October 9, 2026

Walking into Walls

free-verse postures, vinyasa poesy

while on my mat today in tadasana an impish poem
flits into my practice, scampers around me,
twirls my yoga strap the way a rhythmic gymnast might,
navigates the balance beam of my bolster,
spins distracting cartwheels in my mind when, whoa,
instructor bo—thank you!—invites us all
to breathe, no need to see anything as wall.

—dotty seiter

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Notes about poem and art:
• I’ve become fascinated by the way poems become poems, and I’ve revisited the demi-sonnet form to give shape here to “free-verse postures” which is a poem about a different poem that was trying its darnedest to get me off my yoga mat to go write it! I love that the demi-sonnet has more freedoms and spaciousness than, say, a tanka but is still tight enough to challenge me to stay within its confines and also has the optional invitation to end with a rhyming or slant-rhyming couplet.
• Cavorting was itself a bit of a pesky insistent idea wanting expression. I kept resisting, perceiving it in my mind to be somehow “too simple,” or “too easy,” or … I really don’t know what, when what my heart knew was I wanted to paint tiny, bright, and playful. Thank you, my heart! So grounding and spirit-lifting to paint this piece.

artist at play

demi-sonnet, inspired by artists who paint from their hearts, watercolor inchies

Posted by:

Dotty Seiter

10 responses to “Walking into Walls”

carol lee

October 9, 2026 at 4:05 am

I love your description of how your poem develops in odd places: yoga class! I also love your dedication to forms in your poetry, constrictions in many ways help in the creative process.

That brings me to your watercolor studies. I have found that the hardest is to capture the simple. When you have clear intentions, limited palette, similar shapes you somehow succeed in a lovely variety!

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  October 9, 2026 at 5:36 am
  
  Carol, such a lovely gift to wake to your responses here at my blog today—thank you! To my great delight, the longer I sustain my poetry-writing practice, the more it infuses my day-to-day living. In the case of the poem to which the poem above refers, I literally left my zoom yoga class for a few moments to pin some words to paper! I’ve been utilizing constraints frequently in my writing recently, and I appreciate where doing so takes me.
  
  Speaking of appreciation, I’m grateful for your affirming comments about the ways that simple intentions, limited palette, and similar shapes can effectively capture the simple.
  
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Joyful Puttering

October 9, 2026 at 7:50 am

Don’t you just love how inspiration for one thing often comes while we’re busy doing another thing! Creative energy is a whole system!

LOVE LOVE LOVE your simple circles! They remind me of circles pieces we’ve both done in the past….and I want to do them again now!!!

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  October 9, 2026 at 5:50 pm
  
  Inspiration comes under its own steam when and where it wants to, and it wants to all the time! Well put: creative energy is it own system.
  
  I know I’m going to be making more of these enticingly simple circles!
  
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Simone

October 9, 2026 at 8:09 am

Lovely to be with you in the yoga class, and wake up with you to the voice of Bo 😉

>

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  October 9, 2026 at 5:52 pm
  
  Lovely to have you with me in yoga class, waking up with me to the voice of Bo! In fact, it’s a zoom class and you could literally join us in the class!!! It meets at 700a here, which would be noon (or 100p) for you.
  
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lolajovan

October 9, 2026 at 3:03 pm

Oh Dotty! Another poem and art pairing that leaves me smiling! The poem about another poem, the wisdom of not seeing anything as a wall, the head-long dive into tiny, bright and playful! YES! xoxoxo

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  October 9, 2026 at 5:56 pm
  
  Happy to know this poem and art pairing left you smiling, as it does me as well. I’m always grateful for Bo’s wisdom and leadership, in this case: no walls! YES YES YES. I’m thinking more headlong dives into tiny, bright, and playful are in order. xoxoxo
  
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Sheila Marie Delgado

October 10, 2026 at 12:04 am

Nothing is a wall. I will try to remember that. Yes.

Tiny, bright and playful. That is always enough. I often have to talk myself out of the idea that simple isn’t “real” art. DUH! Thanks for another reminder, Dotty! xoxo

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Dotty Seiter

October 10, 2026 at 6:20 am

Nothing is a wall, nothing is a wall—I’d do well to repeat this as a mantra (in the manner of Dorothy in Oz repeating There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home! Resistance is a bugaboo! Time and time again! Witness my resistance to tiny, bright, playful, and simple hahaha—who created that wall. Gotta bust that one down repeatedly.

Thank you for commenting so faithfully and thoughtfully at my blog, Sheila. I so value our art conversation and friendship across the miles. xoxoxo

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