A Poem for Half Lord of the Fishes Pose

"I lift, lengthen, and grow tall, / then taller than I thought I could,/ my head christened with the crown / that had been waiting for me all this time. " -- from Half Lord of the Pose by Corie Feiner

“In order to rise from its own ashes, a Phoenix first must burn.”

―Octavia Butler

When I went to write this poem for Half Lord of the Fishes Pose what struck me was the lore of Matsyendra — who was thrown into the ocean by his parents. This core rejection resonated with a part of me that felt cast away as a child, only to become so grateful for my journey years later as I looked back at all the perceived rejections to see how, although painful, that these were essential moments in my path to awakening, self-directed growth, and transformation.

What also struck me when writing this poem is the whole thing about twisting away old juju in the body. Have you ever done what is called a “spiritual bypass?” Only to have parts of your body — like your hips or back — speak to you and remind you that trauma is held in the body and that is takes work to loosen it, process it, feel it all, until you can let is go…

and then let it go again, and again, until it wears away like a rock beneath a trickl…