Poetry and Garuda

“Poetry is a little lens through which one can examine, at close range, some details of the universe”. — Luci Shaw.

The Subject of the month for April is poetry, in line with National Poetry month. When Parvathi was still teaching asana classes she would often read poetry while we were in the deepest of twists or bends. She reminded us that the ambiguity in poetic verses allows the mind to be free from its pull towards a usual and known meaning.  That freedom allows us to almost feel and possibly taste the words rather than think about what was just said.

Here is another quote about poetry, this by Roger Housden as published in the Huff Post:

"Poetry at its best calls forth our deep being. It dares us to break free from the safe strategies of the cautious mind; it calls to us, like the wild geese, as Mary Oliver would say, from an open sky. It is a magical art, and always has been — a making of language spells designed to open our eyes, open our doors and welcome us into a bigger world, one of possibilities we may never have dared to dream of.

In addition to using poetry to soar through the open sky this month, we will practice Garuda Asana. Garuda is the fictional half-bird, half-man vehicle that carries Vishnu, the god that sustains. He serves the task of this deity well as he is often seen carrying a vessel full of amrit, the nectar that sustains life and keeps death away. He uses his super-human strength to serve rather than to dominate. Garuda is known to act as a messenger between the gods and the humans.  Perhaps he uses poetry to convey these as tidings from beyond. After all, in my experience anyway, messages that come as intuition from the god-realm (or you can just call it grace) often appear as a bundle of words that require consideration and need to be felt deeply in order to be assimilated on some level, just like poetry.  And of course the different levels of meaning can take us lifetimes to understand.

And as a side note, I am very proud to host my husband’s book release party on Friday the 6th at the studio. His connection to poetry has helped me to relax in to the music of words and let myself be in the place of not-knowing.  I am also grateful to witness an intention come true, which was on his part to have a book published by the end of 2017.  Staying true to Warren’s nature of procrastination, we received the first copy from the publisher the end of December. I am happy to say we have reached (over) full capacity for the reading, so if you have not RSVP’d already you can pick up a copy at the studio after next week or visit Amazon.

PS-He did not edit this writing, I take full responsibility for all grammatical mistakes and misspellings.

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