Losgelassenheit*
Anne Whitehouse


Think of anatomy as a refuge,
palpable, certain.
Finding a precise alignment
to convey a path to the heart.
 
Consider the curve
of the slender gracilis muscle,
like an unfurled ribbon
crossing the inner hip and knee.
 
An artifact of evolution,
gracilis runs in a straight line
in bent-knee quadrupeds.
When humans stood upright,
and our knees extended,
gracilis, bound by fascia,
stayed behind.
 
Guided by its rider,
the horse gathers up speed
and leaps with a power
beyond human measure.
 
Horse and rider in perfect union,
loose and completely relaxed,
like a child connected to its mother
before its first breath.
 
 
*Losgelassenheit--a German word, literally, the quality of having loosened and let go, conveying a union of horse and rider.

About the Author: Anne Whitehouse is the author of six poetry collections--The Surveyor’s Hand, Blessings and Curses, Bear in Mind, One Sunday Morning, The Refrain, and her new volume, Meteor Shower, published by Dos Madres Press in 2016. Recent honors include winner of the 2016 Songs of Eretz poetry prize, first prize in the 2016 RhymeOn! poetry contest, 2016 Poems of Gratitude award, and second prize in 2016 F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum poetry contest. She is currently at work on a series of anatomy poems, of which “Losgelassenheit” is one example. Find out more about her here.

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