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Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,Īnd I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,ĭropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,Īnd a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made (Caution: You may want to edit out a few frank anatomical references that could disrupt relaxation!) How: Read very slowly, encouraging students to locate and then relax each part of the body mentioned therein. (Tantra, the vein of yoga from which much of modern yoga derives, sees the body not as an obstacle to enlightenment, but rather a gateway to it.) Whitman’s philosophy of the union of body and soul seems downright tantric. Why: This poem, like many of Whitman’s, points to the connection among all of humankind, and it celebrates the human body. When: In any long-held savasana or restorative pose, or at the beginning of yoga nidra practice. Ribs, belly, backbone, joints of the backbone…Īfter his ecstatic inventory, he concludes this way: “O I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul,/ O I say now these are the soul!” Wrist and wrist-joints, hand, palm, knuckles, thumb, forefinger, finger-joints, finger-nails,īroad breast-front, curling hair of the breast, breast-bone, breast-side,
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Upper-arm, armpit, elbow-socket, lower-arm, arm-sinews, arm-bones, Strong shoulders, manly beard, scapula, hind-shoulders, and the ample side-round of the chest, Nose, nostrils of the nose, and the partition,Ĭheeks, temples, forehead, chin, throat, back of the neck, neck-slue, Mouth, tongue, lips, teeth, roof of the mouth, jaws, and the jaw-hinges, Head, neck, hair, ears, drop and tympan of the ears,Įyes, eye-fringes, iris of the eye, eyebrows, and the waking or sleeping of the lids, How: Here’s one idea: As you would if using a call-and-response chant to open class, have your students repeat each line of this sonnet after you!
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This poem is particularly relevant to yoga, since Shakespeare seems to be taking Patanjali’s advice about pratipaksha bhavana from Sutra 2.33: In this poem, the speaker practices “thinking the opposite.” When he is at his nadir, he has only to meditate upon the touchstone of a certain “you” to feel that he is on top of the world. Just as chanting can encourage us to lengthen our exhales-potentially relaxing us-so can reading a pentametric line aloud! (And just as chanting can catapult us out of our daily mode of speech and into a realm where things are a bit less intelligible but a little more magical, so can Elizabethan English!) The iamb (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, duh-DUM) is said to simulate the heartbeat, while pentameter (a ten syllable line) is a line that can be comfortably recited on one long exhale. Why: Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter. That then I scorn to change my state with kings. (Like to the lark at break of day arisingįrom sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate įor thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
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Haply I think on thee, and then my state, Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,įeatured like him, like him with friends possessed,ĭesiring this man’s art and that man’s scope, When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,Īnd trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, Here are thirteen favorite poems of mine that “rhyme” neatly with some aspects of yoga class, along with a few suggestions as to when (and how) you might “enjamb” them. This kicks my days off to a good start poetry refreshes not only my vocabulary but my perspective, catapulting me into a rich world of analogies that primes me for noticing connections where I saw none before. (You can find more tips on finding and sharing poems here.) I tend to look for “yoga poems” over breakfast. And, by reading my old favorites aloud, I often discover new meaning in them. In searching for one perfect poem for class, I may discover a dozen new poems I can’t believe I lived without. I’ve found the project of sharing poems in class over the course of the month doesn’t just broaden the poetic horizons of my students-it also broadens my own. Every April, National Poetry Month offers an opportunity for us to include more poetry in our daily lives…and perhaps in our yoga practices! Yoga class is fertile ground for us to implant a love of poetry: Our students, who have made the choice to step away from the exigencies of daily life and tune in to the subtlest of sensations and sounds, may be uniquely receptive to a poem or two.