After a long interest in bodywork and movement, particularly Tai Chi and Tango, Michael discovered Rolfing and went on to become a certified Rolfer who trained at the European Rolfing Association in Munich. You will find him listed on both the European Rolfing Association website and the Rolfing Ireland website. He has practices at the Dublin Holistic Centre, on South William Street and the Ashdown Centre in Limerick City.

About this Poem
Last Sept 2010 I went to the Budding Cafe, a cafe I regularly visit in Galway city. I walked in and found sitting there a friend of mine Marilyn Lennon who runs the Spirit Store art project. She's currently working on a collaborative project with Galway writing group Inkstorm. That day in the cafe happened to be the first day of a pilot run of the Spirit Store/Inkstorm Poetry Depot project, and they asked me if I'd work with them to collaborate on a poem of my choice. As I'm a Rolfer, practice Tai Chi and dance Tango, this is the poem poet Dave Rock and I came up with, hope you like it.

The Rolfing Poem
When Ida Rolf first laid hands on bodies To move their flesh and bones
More than eighty years ago
She couldn't have known of the echoes
The warmth and oil of fingerprints
Palmprints, strength of arms and legs
Awakening trapped flesh into new
Spaces and open breath
Through decades and over continents
Into opening current
And fluid hum of life
Fingertips tangoing backbones;
Tai Chi rippling in miniature ritual
Through ligaments and tissues
As they let go of old contractions
And expand outward into freer forms of life
For us to know how we always dance with
And across each others' bones
And sling the hips of gravity
Around our own;
She couldn't have known how much
Her hands would live in mine.

© The Rolfing Poem by Dave Rock with Michael Seymour produced for the SpiritStore/Inkstorm Poetry Depot.

 

Contact Details

• Email: seymour.mike@hotmail.com
• Website: www.rolfing2balance.com
• Tel: 087 645 2073