Poetry and Yoga with Juan Tituana

With part two of Juan Tituana's contribution to The Song Is..., let's skip ahead to the part of the New Year that looks forward.  Of course, it is January 2 today, so it's not time to look back anymore.  Let's look ahead to the seeds of our future, to use a phrase from the fabulous Forrest Yoga workshop that I attended today.

Yoga Inspiration

Poems by Liz Huntly (2013)

Photos by Juan Tituaña          

Yoga poses by Nahla Tebcherany   (Yoga Instructor at Thrive Yoga, Rockville)

“A poem is a bridge between the language of the mind and the language of the soul” (Liz Huntly)

Perfection

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

“You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.”

 Movement

We Have Come to Be Danced by Jewel Mathieson

“We have come to be danced

not the pretty dance

not the pretty pretty, pick me, pick me dance

but the claw our way back into the belly 

of the sacred, sensual animal dance

the unhinged, unplugged, cat is out of its box dance

the holding the precious moment in the palms 

of our hands and feet dance”

Compassion

Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye

“Before you know what kindness really is

you must lose things,

feel the future dissolve in a moment

like salt in a weakened broth.

What you held in your hand,

what you counted and carefully saved,

all this must go so you know

how desolate the landscape can be

between the regions of kindness.”

Possibiility

The Fragile Vial by Rumi

“Be a spot of ground where nothing is growing,
where something might be planted,
a seed, possibly, from the Absolute.”

Surrender

In Blackwater Woods by Mary Oliver

“To live in this world

you must be able 

to do three things:

to love what is mortal;

to hold it

against your bones knowing

your own life depends on it;

and where the time comes to let it go,

to let it go.”

I've posted Ahmad Jamal's "Saturday Morning" before, but I think that it fits well with this entry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90h_ZpuGAfU

He has also written "Sunday Afternoon":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUjPwnYJUYo

I want to include some Dorothy Ashby as well, starting with her "Soul Vibrations":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtUYuTiWuSs

Here is her "Essence of Sapphire":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEUzOWF9aD0

I'll finish with two performances by Donal Fox and Warren Wolf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu69y0Y4S4M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuzixXuzBDU