In empty-hand Aikido, one facilitates the momentum of an attacker to defend one's self. A few slight movements change a punch into a fist-led flip. Most people in the West consider Aikido to be a purely defensive martial art, which must surprise the hell out of those who practice the form with a sword. A sword you ask? Yes. The very same motions which can be used empty-handed to aid the momentum of one's attacker can be used to strike and parry with a sword. So contemplate that, while you GRAB MY WRIST*!
Combat Expiration: 12am PST, 3/14/2011
Critique Expiration: 12am PST, 3/16/2011
Bonuses/Penalties: +2 if posted by 6pm PST, 3/11/2011, +1 if posted by 12am PST 3/12/2011, -1 if posted by 6am PST 3/14/2011, -2 if posted by 12pm PST 3/14/2011.
The Rules: http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html
*How aggressive Aikido masters challenge people to a fight
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Paulette Goddard (Chaplin at Golgotha)
ReplyDeleteA modern Salome, or Magdalene,
all she had to do was grin;
gripped between her perfect teeth, the blade
she emancipated bananas with,
flinging them up to the grubby gamins
begging at the edge of the pier.
He would lie for that smile, do time for that smile,
risk his life, even sing gibberish in public
if it ever came to that. (And of course it did.)
All it took was that beaming angelic face,
that devilish smile
to send him tumbling,
his own weight doing the rest,
dragging him down,
though of course he’d always spring
back to his feet again.
Like her, we grow to adore him. We cannot help ourselves.
He is us
when he falls. When he rises up
he is who we pray –against all odds- to be.
Deteriorating Facsimile [Combatwords, March 12, 2011]
ReplyDeleteAdmit it, you've suffered reversals.
Desire, so the Buddhists declaim,
Is the root of one's woe as if life
Were a trifle. It's huge. It's the only
Certainty, other than death.
But love is as likely as dinner,
As likely as children—they're us
But they're smaller; repeating our lives.
We diminish each time and forget
Failures: we copy and shrink,
Then we're gone
And return
And then vanish.