Can Poetry Have a Place in Our Yoga Practice?

Many of us read a poem before or after our yoga practice, but interweaving poetry inside of our yoga practices can bring presence and magic into our studios and into our lives

** This article was originally published in Om Magazine, but I wanted to share it with you all here **

Yoga and poetry can be considered different art forms, but both have the same guiding principles – they both ask us to pause, pay attention, and to feel. When separate, they potentially offer a powerful experience. When combined, they can create magic.

Yoga uses the tools of the body. Poetry uses the tools of the written word on the page. They meet each other in the union of breath and how through the physical means of this world, we can touch something greater than ourselves.

It is common to read a poem at the beginning of a yoga class to help set a meditative tone to a practice; and to read a poem at the end of a class during the receptive space that Savasana offers. Often, the poems read are by Mary Oliver, Rumi, James Wright, Tagore, and other poets o…