My fifth book, Ride Backwards on Dragon: a poet’s journey through Liuhebafa, has recently been re-issued by Pig Squash Press and now has its own website over at liuhebafagirl. So come check us out! You’ll find lots of interesting stuff about Liuhebafa and other internal martial arts from China, along with information on Taoist metaphysics, internal alchemy and Chi Gong.
According to legend and Taoist practice, the 1,000-year-old martial art of Liuhebafa is considered to be a recipe for internal alchemy (a form of personal transformation) and even immortality. In addition to my poems, Ride Backwards on Dragon contains 30 pages of endnotes decoding that ancient ‘secret’ recipe, which is hidden in the names of the 66 movements of the main form of Liuhebafa. (The language of all the Taoist internal arts is bursting with metaphysical symbolism. And none more so than Liuhebafa. Its ancient encrypted lexicon of wild geese and tigers, sun and cloud, mythical creatures and humble ploughboys, is the very essence of poetry – pure metaphor, to safeguard the secrets of internal alchemy and immortality.)
I began studying Liuhebafa in 1998 and am grateful to Joshua Crossley for teaching me the form.
My Liuhebafa teacher Josh Crossley and myself, playing one of our innumerable games of Chinese Chess (Hsiang-Ch`i) that would always follow our practice sessions, along with a good meal.
I continue to practice the 66-move main form of Liuhebafa daily (and to discover new parts of myself in the process) down at the oceanfront park near my home in Nanaimo, BC.
May you be water running in high mountains,
Kim Goldberg
Pig Squash Press 