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 of the mystic cannon. When I set out to write, A Poem for Every Pose, it was with the intention for each poem to be about the pose itself and to honor and embody its depth and healing potential to the best of our abilities; and to integrate many of them into yoga sequences while we are in the actual poses. Downward Dog is read as we stretch in our version of Downward Dog. Mountain Pose is read while we are in our version of Mountain Pose.
A Poem for Every Pose started with Hero Pose. Early one morning, I was sitting in Hero and asked myself, These days, what does it mean to be a hero?
I thought of how the myth of the Hero’s Journey has most often been an external one, but how now, more than ever, the hero’s journey is within.
This is the poem that was born from that moment—
Hero Pose
By Corie Feiner What is it mean to be a hero? To kneel on any piece of floor you can find, your knees pressed together, your feet apart, your big toes reaching towards each other in stillness and longing? What does it mean to lean forwards and backwards at the same time? To bring ourselves closer to ourselves, and to this earth? To ask, What battles rage inside of me? And to conquer them, not with the steel blade of anger or the shoveled dirt of burying them deep inside, but with the devotion of breath that is born of the wind. Ask yourself, What do I love the most? Then leap towards it, ready to become a mountain, a drop of ocean water, a self-contained storm. Sanskrit Name: Virasana
Paid subscribers may access the spoken word reading of Hero Pose here.
If you are not a paid subscriber, I highly encourage you to consider upgrading to paid so that you can access the audio recordings of the poems and take them in with an even more embodied presence.
At the time, I didn’t think I would write another poem... until the next one came and then the next one. With the feedback of my yoga community and many yoga instructors, A Poem for Every Pose was born.
As a former curriculum integration specialist, I offer this collection of poems to yoga instructors and practitioners as a way to breathe new life into our yoga practice, deepen our connection to each pose, and give us a sacred moment of mind/body/spirit alignment and pause. The poems can be read before or after your practice or interwoven into the entire flow of a yoga sequence. Here are several you can start using right now —
Mountain Pose
By Corie Feiner Every day is a new day to relearn how to stand, to lift my head away from sink dishes and screens, to roll my shoulders from their good-for-nothing slouch, to hold my neck high as if there was a string from heaven pulling me upwards saying, You were born of us, too. Today, I stand like a mountain and tell myself, This is where everything begins. Still and solid with arms that flow by my sides like wild rivers shimmering with life. Here, I become a witness to time itself watching my thoughts come and go like wind-swept clouds knowing no matter what storms come my way, my feet can hold me to the earth as I crumble and rise, crumble and rise humble and holy, dirty and divine. Sanskrit Name: Tadasana
Paid subscribers may access the spoken word reading of Mountain Pose here.
If you are not a paid subscriber, I highly encourage you to consider upgrading to paid so that you can access the audio recordings of the poems and take them in with an even more embodied presence.
This poem invites you or your students to befriend themselves while being in the receptivity of Downward Dog. It can be used as part of any practice—
Downward Dog
By Corie Feiner Here, I become my own best friend. I follow myself from room to room and lick my face with love. I sit at my feet when I read and when I throw my heart away from myself, I leap to fetch it and bring it back in my panting mouth with glee. When I see danger, I bark to protect everything I hold sacred, and when I speak to myself I cock my head to the side and listen as if everything I am saying needs to be heard. When I wake up from a nap taken smack dab in the middle of the day, I rise to my hands, spread my paws, curl my toes, raise my knees, shift my stomach toward my thighs, lift my hips as high as they will go, and wag. Here, I become the union of the sun and moon, and all that appears to be opposite in this world. All my life, I was scared of dogs in the same way I was scared of myself, until, one night I came to share the same small bed with a large red dog who kept me warm and safe from my once terrifying dreams. Now, I wait for myself by the door every time I leave and when I hear the familiar jingle of my keys, I bark, so excited I have finally come home. Sanskrit Name: Adho Mukha Svanasana
Paid subscribers may access the spoken word reading of Downward Dog here.
If you are not a paid subscriber, I highly encourage you to consider upgrading to paid so that you can access the audio recordings of the poems and take them in with an even more embodied presence.
This poem can be read as part of a heart opening sequence or read to anyone who needs a lift—
Star Pose
By Corie Feiner To be in star pose is to stand with your heart so open it could feel worthy of taking up any space it needs. It is to hold your body upright, to spread your arms and legs so wide you can swear they twinkle, your breath shimmering with light. It is to remember that you, too, are made of the same stuff as all star bodies that guide even the most storm-tossed ships back to shore. We have seen the beginning of time over and over again and, each time, it seems like the end, but know this, as you stand there, that you are a wish in someone else’s sky. Sanskrit Name: Utthita Tadasana
Paid subscribers may access the spoken word reading of Star Pose here.
If you are not a paid subscriber, I highly encourage you to consider upgrading to paid so that you can access the audio recordings of the poems and take them in with an even more embodied presence.
When poetry is incorporated into your yoga practice, it creates a synergistic effect of creating more space in our minds as we create more space in our bodies. It deepens our connection to our movements, activates our healing potential, and brings us into the present moment.
If you are a yoga practitioner, I invite you to read Hero Pose at the beginning of your practice, Mountain Pose as part of a grounding practice, or to slip in Downward Dog or Star Pose in a heart opening practice. Or, if you know someone who could use a moment of opening their hearts in a safe space, try a stand-alone Star Pose and watch their minds, bodies, and spirits open just enough to shine.
** I hope you enjoyed this post and found it helpful. If you are a yoga teacher, please feel free to read out to me about poems for your class. I would love to help! **
The wonderful thing about your yoga poetry is that it always offers something new - often hidden - in the posture. Your yoga poems are truly written from the inside out. You give compelling and beautiful words to what_you_feel, reminding us all to continue to turn the arrow of inquiry internally. Very beautiful. Thank you.
These poems are all so precious and they can help us go deeper into why we do the poses we do. What do these poses mean? What are the stories we tell ourselves as we embody the essence of these poses? You often hear teachers ask students to 'let go of the stories you tell yourself about your life,' but I would argue that maybe sometimes we should just shift and tell ourselves more intentional, uplifting stories. And that is what you are helping us to do through your poetry! So beautiful and relatable!