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RE: Shavasana (Day 58 of 100 -- Poetry challenge)

in #poetry7 years ago

"Shavasana" for those too lazy or not near a computer to check, is the pose in yoga known as "The Corpse Pose."

I rarely like the use of bold text in a poem, or anything that helps the poem convey its meaning. When the bold is not needed for the meaning, why have it? And if the message only comes through due to the bold text, then the text itself failed.
Yet here, it's not the situation, as the poem is strong enough to convey its meaning without relying on the bold text, yet the bold text adds its own mini-poem:

I walked until I could no longer go on,
I found myself in the corpse pose,
I can never go back.

And that is a poem about life. "I lived life to the fullest. I died. I can't go back to my old life."
Or "I lived myself out," if you want to look at it more negatively.
And you can look at it as "I can't go back to the rowdy life," or "I can't go back to life," and each meaning is slightly different, yet all of them together add up to a layered image.

Letting go. Letting go of life. Letting go of effort.
Letting go as you let yourself be between earth and sky.
No, this poem is not about affecting change, yet it feels more in tune with the world, and with alchemy, and with the union of All Things than most of your other alchemical writings.
This isn't about forcing reality, but accepting it.
And that is a much more powerful Ask, and Say.

And speak of an epitaph. This one speaks to the living, who are not yet ready to join you. They seek to learn from you, but all they can do is follow the path in the reverse direction. The path leading away from the learning.
Such is life.
Such is the living.

P.S. I always think how young you look in that image. I look at it semi-regularly.