Poetry in Motion

Vinyasa (asana practice that follows the movement of the breath) has been called "Poetry in motion." 

Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins (cautionary tale against interpretation over experience)

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

• This metaphor may be more literal than one might expect
• These analogies are inspired by a course I once took from the poet Billy Collins. He is one of my favorite poets because of the following (his ideas...my interpretation)
• Poems are histories of the heart (history told from the perspective of feelings and emotions and found in one's experience)
• Poems are held together by form 
• rhythm (the dance of the poem)
• sound (the reading of the poem)-music?
• what if these conventions are absent (meter and rhyme)?-experience becomes less concentrated and predictable (no training wheels)
• set sequences versus free form (Ashtanga, Bikram)
• experimenting with "violations" of form
• Other ways: 
• rituals (start the same way with each line
• gathers strength with repetition like a prayer or a chant
• sun salutations as initiation in to movement
• Internal patterns/scaffolding (rhythm and sound are not thrown away -just the metronome).
• Use the natural rhythms that we have (in our speech, nature, etc.)
• evenness of breath followed by evenness of movement equals evenness of mind (Ed)
• "Turning" (trust your own associations to lead readers/students)
• "visual games"-only purpose is to discover and arrive at the ending through associations of sound or movement (improvisation)
• one of the first skills that is learned is to go along with the premise you are given
• taking cues from your audience/students
• playfulness
• travel (from familiar to unfamiliar)
• path/journey metaphors
• gross to subtle
• simple to complex
• metaphor (connection to familiar things- correspondences)-puts an AFFECT on the movement to give it "life"
• movements are abstract
• actions are internal
• warrior (implies fierceness)
• companionship (once memorized in becomes part of you)
• romance of time (call to action, carpe diem, live more deeply)
• every moment is potentially auspicious 
• seeing eternity in a grain of sand
• liminality allows the recognition of the importance of time (as it "stops" it)
• What keeps the reader/student in staying with you (listening)
• they come back for the poem (movement/practice) not you
• because they see you love what you do (performance/poetry/yoga) more than yourself doing it (share the same interest)
• Trust is essential in poetry
• readers/practitioners will trust if the knowledge and craftsmanship of the poet/teacher are established in the beginning
• What holds it together? Rhyme and meter creates a container for self expression
• why the breath is so important?
• Poetry are words imposed on silence. Is yoga movement imposed on stillness?
• the in-between spaces connecting one thing to another are as important as the postures/words/movements
• there is no posture, just transition, when one achieves a level of mastery
• the distinction between postures is arbitrary. in reality, all is movement if one is following their breath
• teaching conundrum: How much time does one spend on technique (deconstructing the flow) rather than mastery (Iyengar problem- paralyzed by technique)
• A poem progresses from small to large ideas.
• the subject you start with is provisional (a way in) it is quickly abandoned once the larger subject is revealed. Revelations may occur one after the other.
• the yoga quote at the beginning or near the end???? thoughts?
• can be seen purely on physical terms in yoga or from physical to emotional or philosophical. 
• Yoga as a physical philosophy
• How these transformations occur is the process of a poem. This process of creation should be woven in to your teaching (your practice informs your teaching)
• though writing/creation according to a theme maybe generally useful, the process should not be limited by the theme
• you do not always have to know exactly where you are going until the end of the process (experiment)
• ritual progression is illustrated here (Van Gennep)-ensuring engagement determines the length and structure of each stage, also important to know how they are becoming disengaged-physically or in terms of mental attention
• separation
• transition
• reincorporation
• Good poems have the right amounts of "clarity" and "mystery"
• how is each used and when?
• which "cards" should be shown, and which should be left face down, or when should each be turned is part of good process
• some cards must be turned over for readers (students) to follow
• You are not a poet all the time, but you can be a poet when you are not writing
• relieves the anxiety of the blank page
• makes correspondences between practice in your body and the reality of your experiences off "the mat"
• Inspiration comes in many forms
• Quiet/stillness allows thoughts and experiences to enter (revelation/creativity/stillness yogis)-meditation?
• savasana
• moving into stillness?
• doing "nothing"
• imitation or prompt allows you to start-then you experiment (innovation)
• Introspection (note 20 things you experience yesterday in no particular order-inventory without chronology)...which is remembered?
• sublime in the ordinary
• Finish a poem in one sitting (even if it will later be changed)
• try to practice out and idea/physical experiment until it is finished
• there is always another idea
• Always surprise yourself
• take a surprise route
• surprise your students
• don't be afraid to fail. Look forward to it
• enjoy the messiness of process/write on paper, not computers so you save your mistakes instead of deleting them. They may not be mistakes in retrospect
• learning/creation is rarely linear
• The look of a poem on the page is important
• Poetry is intense/frustrating
• it's in your language but you can't understand it (immediately-instant gratification)
• poetry asks you to work for the understanding/meaning (can not be spelled out)
• takes patience and interest
• close examination
• discipline/attention
• meaning is unstable and ambiguous (meaning is deeper than the surface suggests)
• there may not be one meaning
• Take notes when you read a poem/try to understand
• leave footprints of your thinking 
• insightful to read your notes-and see how you have changed
• Reading other people's notes in the margins
• Your voice is NOT inside you to find. Your voice will be found in the voices of others (teachers, students, experiences) but combined in a unique way so that you can't trace them back to their source.
• this is a synthesis of your experiences and worked out through your personal practice in yoga 
• it's you when no one else could have taught the way you did. This may take time (Poets find this by reading all the poetry they can-yoga teachers do this by taking classes from as many great teachers they can)
• let some of your imperfections/personality into your teaching
• who will you be? what are the important qualities you want to bring to your teaching persona?
• me: humor, curiosity, geeky (intellectual), skeptical, a bit sarcastic, ordinary (unpretentious), private, teacher (educator), practitioner (dedicated).
• What can't be taught
• get beyond the (ego) to write/teach...lesson from the Gita
• voice-authentic, engaged, conversant, honest
• the writing of a poem/teaching is an experience, not the record of an experience.
• need to be present
• need to be engaged
• need to be responsive to your class