“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
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)
Thank you for a midweek stretch!
ReplyDeleteLovely prompt Sumana!💖 I ll be back later tonight with a poem. Busy day at work 💖
ReplyDeleteNice to see you all. Enjoy :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Sumana for this brilliant prompt, and just when I needed to breathe!
ReplyDeleteThanks Khaya :)
DeleteGood 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.
ReplyDeleteThank you dear Sunflower poet :)
DeleteOM
ReplyDeletea good Wednesday to all
much love...
Happy Wednesday Gillena (though in my part of the world it's Thursday)!
DeleteI 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?
ReplyDeleteI 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.
DeleteThanks for the wonderful gift of your poem Susan :)
Perhaps meditation, which I can manage for 5 minutes or so, is a form of yoga.
DeleteWhat a unique topic, Sumana. I admire those who practice yoga...greatly.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mary specially for the lovely poem.
DeleteThank you for guiding us on, Sumana.
ReplyDeleteThank you Martin :)
DeleteThank you for an interesting prompt, I practice Yoga/Pilates a few times a week.
ReplyDeleteThanks Truedessa. Physical Yoga is quite a difficult path to reach the mind. Kudos to you.
DeleteI'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,
ReplyDeleteElizabeth
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.
ReplyDeleteNamastey! 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 :)
ReplyDelete