Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Yoga



“Yoga is the practice of quieting the mind.” — Patanjali

SOURCE


“The meaning of our self is not to be found in its separateness from God and others, but in the ceaseless realization of yoga, of union; not on the side of the canvas where it is blank but on the side where the picture is being painted.”— Rabindranath Tagore
                        


                               Midweek Motif ~ Yoga



I was thinking if we could give a little thought to ‘Yoga’ in our poems on this International Day of Yoga which is celebrated annually on 21 June since its inception in 2015.

Yoga is ‘slower, fewer and deeper breath’; to the practitioners a panacea for modern, hectic life.

You may be contemplative, humorous or sarcastic. It would be lovely if you could include the word ‘yoga’ in your lines. You may even dwell on the literal meaning of the word ‘Yoga’ which is ‘Union’. And a personal experience would be an added bonus.

Here I am including excerpts of some poems that reflect the perfection, awareness, compassion, surrender etc that yoga intends to gift its devoted followers:


From WildGeese by Mary Oliver:

“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
Love what it loves.”


From The laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski:

“your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission,
be on the watch.”


From Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye:

“Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between region of kindness”


From BlackwaterWoods by Mary Oliver:

“To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.”



Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community—

            
                (Next week Sumana’s Midweek Motif will be ~ War & Peace)
                              

21 comments:

  1. Thank you for a midweek stretch!

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  2. Lovely prompt Sumana!πŸ’– I ll be back later tonight with a poem. Busy day at work πŸ’–

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  3. Thank you Sumana for this brilliant prompt, and just when I needed to breathe!

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  4. Good morning, friends. Today 9ur building will be without power from nine till noon, so will finish making the rounds when it comes back on. Thanks, Sumana, for the prompt.

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  5. OM

    a good Wednesday to all

    much love...

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    1. Happy Wednesday Gillena (though in my part of the world it's Thursday)!

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  6. I can not tell you how much more I understand yoga from the poem snippets you include here! I had not enjoyed it, because I stopped living to "do" it. Now I might do it while living. Hmm. Maybe there is a poem in here. Are you a practitioner?

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    1. I don't do physical yoga but more interested in writing yoga like you all to reach my inner world, quieting mind and avoid chaos all around.
      Thanks for the wonderful gift of your poem Susan :)

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    2. Perhaps meditation, which I can manage for 5 minutes or so, is a form of yoga.

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  7. What a unique topic, Sumana. I admire those who practice yoga...greatly.

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  8. Thank you for guiding us on, Sumana.

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  9. Thank you for an interesting prompt, I practice Yoga/Pilates a few times a week.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Truedessa. Physical Yoga is quite a difficult path to reach the mind. Kudos to you.

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  10. I'd also like to thank you for stretching my knowledge of the subject, I'd never paid much attention to before. It certainly helped me write, and the conversation was uplifting,

    Elizabeth

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  11. Hello, I am quite late. I didn't think this topic could inspire me in any way – then I realised I have a dear friend who is a master of yoga, so I wrote about her.

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  12. Namastey! from India to everyone reading here...I'm very late here, but glad I passed by. It's always a pleasure to read all of this great stuff and feel inspired. I recently re-updated a poem of mine which I was reluctant to post at first, made a draft and kept it that way immediately after posting the same last time. Today I felt like there's nothing wrong if I feel wht I felt and wrote, and similarly it's not wrong if I post the same..however mundane, and idiotic it may sound. So I have shared a link to the poem here. Hope u like it :)

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