American Sentences

I have some secrets that I have kept far too long. The secret keeping was out of shame and embarrassment - like I was not good enough to do certain things. So if I did them in secret (well a few dear people know) then somehow I was safe. You might ask what does safe mean? For me, it meant that my vulnerability as well as my deep fear of failure were tucked nicely in a corner. 

Allen Ginsberg

Living in the dark like this no longer feels like the right thing to do. Yoga is about exposing ourselves to ourselves. The asana work stripping away the layers of literal and metaphorical tightness. This work requires both fierce courage and incredible vulnerability as meet and greet all the sides of ourself - darkness and light. Pranayama is a further 'un-doing' - slowing and sometimes painfully bringing us closer and close to who we are. Fabulous flawed and wonderfully alive humans looking to be loved and to love during this 'wild and precious life.' 


Back to the secret, I write poetry. I have done so for many, many years. I read poetry - lots of it. I cut out poems I love and stick them in my journal. There are line of poems that are burned into me - they rattled my cage - they woke me up - they spoke my truth - they urged me to keep digging for my own 'self':'


"Want the change. Be inspired by the flame/Where everything shines as it disappears." - Rilke


"Tell all the truth - but tell it slant." - Emily Dickinson


"Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly/let it cut more deep." - Hafiz


"Tell me, what is it you plan to do/With your one wild and precious life?" - Mary Oliver


"You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves." - Mary Oliver


"May the Angel of Wildness disturb the places/ Where your life is domesticated and safe/Take you to the territories of true otherness/Where all that is awkward in you Can fall into its own rhythm." - John O'Donahue

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I do a writing practice as often as I can to jog images onto the page. Allen Ginsberg did not believe the English language was cut out for the airt of Haiku and came up with the "American Sentence" which is One sentence, 17 syllables, end of story. This is harder than it sounds but it is a great way of both working in a kind of poetic structure as well as exploring the edges of creativity. Kinda like our asana practice. We work in the structure of the pose and line up, consolidate and then from there we expand. Anyway,  here are couple of examples of my American Sentences:

The notes as familiar as your cowlick curl my skull and I sit still here.

Cream uncurdled and floating on coffee waits for the lip touch and swallow.

She wore red shiny shoes hanging from her foot like an invitation.

And my current favorite: Her feral heart quivered although she lay like granite on the divan.