With everything that life has sailed my way the past few months (most notably new work in addition to teaching), it’s been hard to keep this blog current.
Still, the essays in the archives on YLS continue to have relevance. Rest assured I haven’t abandoned the site.
Earlier this week, while enjoying the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, I learned that one of my favorite “end of class” poets, Kay Ryan, has been named the next Poet Laureate of the United States. I call her an “end of class” poet because — as my students know — I like to read a poem at the beginning of savasana. Her short, tight poems, which one critic likened to mousetraps, are clever, thoughtful, and inspiring.
This is what she had to say to The San Francisco Chronicle (read the story here) in the wake of her appointment:
“Poetry should leave you feeling freer and not more burdened. I like to think of all good poetry as providing more oxygen in the atmosphere. Poems just make it easier to breathe.”
How perfect is that for yoga?
Here is an essay I wrote last year about opening the heart center. It was inspired by Ryan’s poem “Chinese Foot Chart”.
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