If you’ve joined me for one of my yoga classes at the library, you know I always include a reading in the spirit of the library providing us the space. I choose the poems with care and are a reflection of that day’s class, perhaps my mood or larger events in the world. If you need some yoga poetry for class readings, choose one of these knowing others have appreciated them.
The Woman who Collects Noah’s Arks by Janet McCann
In honor of Mary Oliver’s passing When Death Comes from Poetry 180, Poems selected by Billy Collins
Just for now from Poems from the Heart of Yoga by Dana Faulds
When the Sun Returns by Sarah Browning
And then the sun by Stephen Connolly
How Clear, How Lovely Bright by A.E. Housman from A Shropshire Lad
The Trees by Philip Larkin from Collected Poems
The Wind Shifts by Wallace Stevens from Harmonium
On Mother’s Day by Bruce Lansky from If Pigs Could Fly—and Other Deep Thoughts: A Collection of Funny Poems
Wind, Water, Stone by Octavio Paz from The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987
Change by Wendy Videlock
Out of the Rolling Ocean the Crowd by Walt Whitman
Heat by John Gould Fletcher
Planetarium by Adrienne Rich from Collected Poems 1950-2012
46 From Song of Myself by Walt Whitman
AAA Vacation Guide by Ernest Hilbert from Sixty Sonnets
All Thirst Quenched by Lois Red Elk
First Men on the Moon by J. Patrick Lewis from A Burst of Firsts: Doers, Shakers, and Record Breakers
Fujiwara no Kiyosuke from One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each
August Morning by Albert Garcia
An excerpt from An Arrow to the Heart: A Commentary on the Heart Sutra by Ken Mcleod
To Solitude by Alice Cary from American Poetry: the 19th Century
Eating the Avocado by Carrie Fountain from Instant Winner
Effort for Distraction by Josephine Miles from Collected Poems
If you’d like more ideas for yoga poetry for class readings, use my article Poems to Support Your Yoga Practice and Yoga Poetry which list 2018 readings. I also shared some yoga relevant quotes in 2016.
If you want to read my original work, get a copy of Water Yoga.
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