A Poem for Three-Legged Dog
"I adjust my weight to find a new balance and accept myself for who I am and how I move remembering that each day is a new day to discover how to live. " -- from Three-legged Dog, by Corie Feiner
I Revised it Again
As I recorded the poem, Three-Legged Dog, I found myself unable to say an entire stanza. I recited it once, then twice, each time stumbling over my words.
I got into and out of the pose, took a conscious breath, and then read it again. Something was not landing. Then suddenly I found myself doing something I had promised myself I would not do. I started to rewrite the poem.
This is after dedicating one year to writing this collection of poems, sharing them with my yoga community and with my advising yoga instructor/writer friend; and then taking another year to edit them all. After that, I made myself the promise that I would no longer edit them. That I would leave them alone. That even if they were not done, I would stop. Until now.
What was Bothering Me
The final version of Three-Legged Dog was the 10th revision of this poem. I tell you this so that you know I am a big proponent of the writing and revising process with the understanding that sometimes things pour out of you practically done and other times…. it takes multiple revisions to get it right.
I hadn’t seen it until today, but the previous version of this poem still had the whisperings of my old habit of shame woven into the fabric of the words. The third stanza read:
Since when did I think that to have any flaw
was a sign of weakness, that my cuts or scars
or missing parts should be something I should hide?
When I looked at this, I realized that when I wrote it, I had only just realized that I was walking around with the weight of scolding myself and hiding parts of myself from myself and others. That I was still grappling the shame. But today, I changed it to:
I used to think that to have any flaw
was a sign of weakness, that my cuts and scars
and missing parts should be something I should hide. Today, I write this from another place. A place where shame does not have ownership over me and I can walk with my badass fifty-year old self with a radical acceptance that comes with wisdom, experience, and showing up to do the work in earnest every day.
The Yoga Poem
As you practice Three-legged Dog on the way to the rest of your flow, I invite you to pause, take in the idea of being kind to yourself, and remember that every day is a new day to practice radical self-acceptance, and be joyful, fierce, feisty, or just be ok with being you.
Three-Legged Dog
By Corie Feiner When I lift my right leg in the air, I am a three-legged dog hopping down the sidewalk and wagging its tail. I am a small yappy pup with a squeaky wheel contraption strapped to its waist who still finds a way to yap yap yap down the street as if I owned everything. I used to think that to have any flaw was a sign of weakness, that my cuts and scars and missing parts should be something I should hide. But now, I adjust my weight to find a new balance and accept myself for who I am and how I move remembering that each day is a new day to discover how to live. Sanskrit Name: Eka Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana
Audio for Paid Subscribers
For my dear paid subscribers, you can listen to me reading Three-legged Dog here.
How does this poem land with you? If you are a yoga teacher, would you consider incorporating this poem into your practice?
In Case You Are New to Three-Legged Dog
Thank you, Corie! You are a blessing.
I just wanted to say that I really enjoy your 'poem for every pose' series. They feel so lovely and somehow delicate and personal to me. Thank you for the beautiful writing.