Poety and Your Yoga Practice

"Poetry has a wild invitation to it -- an invitation to a feast, to your life as a nourishing repast...Poetry reminds you that you're a sacred frontier of experience. Only you can occupy that corner of the universe." --David Whyte

Years ago, I listened to the Clear Mind Wild Heart audio from one of my favorite poets David Whtye. When I heard first heard his words about poetry, I thought that the same could be said for yoga. After all, I had found yoga to be a nourishing practice, one that reminded me of my own sacred frontier.  In this audio, he encouraged reading poetry on a daily basis, which I began doing. I would often sit on my yoga mat just before my practice and read a poem or two. As David Whyte alludes to in his words above, I found myself captivated by the words on the page.

A few years later, the wonderful Robert McDowell released the book Poetry as a Spiritual Practice: Reading, Writing, and Using Poetry in Your Daily Rituals, Aspirations, and Intentions. This delightful book reminded me of the power of the marriage of poetry and yoga. It was during this time that my love of Rumi, Hafiz, Kabir, and Mary Oliver grew. I found myself coming back to the same poems time and again, much as I do my favorite asanas and pranyamas. The similarity to my yoga practice was mind-boggling -- as my body was never the same in each asana, so was my awareness each time I read the same poem. There seemed to always be a new nuance, a new sense of understanding.

Earlier this month, a beautiful book of 108 sacred poems -- Mala of the Heart -- was released. This one little book contains an inspirational collection of poems from saints and mystics who lived and died before 1900. Jack Kornfield, who wrote the foreword for the book, encourages the reader to: "Read these poems slowly. Savor them. Then, as with a mala of prayer beads, read them again. Let them become familiar to your tongue and your heart, and let their deep wisdom guide you to the love and fredom that is your own true nature." Wise advice.

This book now sits on my nightstand, and although I haven't had it for all that long, it is already getting well worn. I do believe that I'm following the editors' advice, who say -- "...our wish for you is that the reading and rereading of a poem will invite an ever-deepening awareness of your nature." I can't think of a better compliment to one's yoga practice, as a practice often has the same effect.

I wholeheartedly agree with the editors of Mala of the Heart and urge you to add poetry reading to your daily practice. Here are some wonderful resources to help you get started:

• Mala of the Heart: 108 Sacred Poems
• Emmanuel's Book: A Manual for Living Comfortably in the Cosmos
• Go In and In: Poems from the Heart of Yoga
• One Soul: More Poems from the Heart of Yoga
• From Root to Bloom: Yoga Poems and Other Writings
• Prayers to the Infinite: New Yoga Poems

Enjoy opening your heart with poetry!

Namaste!

Comments

[Coe Douglas]

Great post. Great suggestions.

I find that yoga is amazing creative fuel and does a great job of opening up pathways to the Imagination.

[claudia]

Thank you for the compiled list of suggestions, I completely agree with you, poetry brings beauty and a new perspective, I love the poems of Robert Frost... :)

[Mark]

It's quite interesting poet. i like it your post.

Great offer and utilize this

[Namaste_Heather]

Lovely post. Poetry, like yoga, meets us where we are on any given day. I love using poems in both my practice and my teaching. I often go equipped with a poem or two for Savasana and use the one that I feel is most appropriate depending on the students. Thank you for this. I'll look into the new resources you've mentioned.

[Bob Weisenberg]

Hi, Diane.

Thanks for the great resources. I'm adding them to my Amazon wish list.

When I first started writing my eBook, YogaDemystified.com, I never intended to write any poetry. But the deeper I got into it, the more some ideas just couldn't be expressed effectively any other way, so I ended up with a good portion being spare, free-form verse, instead of prose. Here's an example of something that just wouldn't have worked in prose:

I’ve decided to dispense with Yoga

And just listen to Mozart all the time.

It gives me the same sense of wonder.

It fills me with the same infinite cosmic joy.

It collapses my entire being into the present moment

Where the music is divine

I am divine

You are divine

The whole world is one and divine.

I’ve decided to dispense with Yoga

And just listen to Mozart all the time.

But then again

Why not have both?

For are they not one and the same?