Writing My Yoga: Poems for Presence [Paperback]

Fran Shaw (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0963910027 | ISBN-13: 978-0963910028 | Publication Date: June 16, 2009

These poems and journal entries are a memoir of eight summers' work with a spiritual guide in the high alpine village of Chandolin, Switzerland. Each poem in Writing My Yoga brings a moment of awareness, an invitation to feel the silence around the words. With a section on how to compose one's own yoga poems. Includes the poem Guru on Ice, Winner, Poetic Journeys award.

An Excerpt: Clearing the Rains

When the fog disappears from the meadow
with a fine mist on the wing,
softly the wind stirs the pine boughs;
softly the morning can sing.

All life comes alive in the sunlight,
the rocks no less fine than the air;
the clouds roll away in their own time
the moment we see what we share.

This new way to live with each other,
this shining which nothing can mar,
will give us a gift without measure:
the freedom to be who we are.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The astonishing passion of Fran Shaw's collection leaves an indelible trace of a world behind the mundane, a world empty of all claims except to taste it deeply. --David Appelbaum, Former Editor of Parabola

Few writers can capture the essence of a moment as spot-on as Shaw. In Writing My Yoga, her spiritual journey leads to a realization that the best way to live and write is to be reborn not once a lifetime but once a second. --Allia Zobel-Nolan, Former Senior Editor, Reader's Digest Books

With these poems, Fran Shaw opens a new era of poetry, an era of genuine hope. Blessed by a sojourn in high places of the earth and of the spirit, she is here able, again and again, to fulfill William Blake's prophecy, If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. I have kept various watchwords before me in poetry writing groups, but Shaw has brought me, shiningly realized, what I was groping toward. I am profoundly grateful for these poems. For a little while after I finished reading them, I saw with those eyes. When I looked up, outside my window the lilac bush stirring in the wind was the teaching. --Martha Heyneman, author of The Breathing Cathedral

About the Author

Fran Shaw, Ph.D., is the author of Notes on The Next Attention, recollected talks of a spiritual guide. She also wrote the popular handbook 50 Ways to Help You Write. A Danforth Fellow and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, winner of the Amy Loveman Poetry Prize and two national awards for poetry, she is Associate Professor of English at the University of Connecticut at Stamford. She has been guiding writing workshops around the world for over twenty years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 84 pages
• Publisher: Indications Press (June 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963910027
• ISBN-13: 978-0963910028
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,128,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yoga Poems : A Review, March 14, 2005

By 

Jessica Lombardi - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Writing My Yoga: Poems for Presence (Paperback)

Fran Shaw's Writing My Yoga is a collection of thought provoking and spiritual poems that uncover truths found in nature and in humanity. With sections before the poems telling a story, the reader is more able to tap into the moments Shaw captures throughout her poetry. The images of frozen glaciers, slippery shadows, and falling raindrops create a flow throughout the work that invites the reader to tap into their own "calm." To breathe, to relax, to read, and most importantly "to be" is what this collection of poems is about. There are no restrictions when it comes to immersing yourself in Fran's "Yoga" but to surrender to her techniques and to watch in amazement as the beautiful art created leaves impressions upon the mind. It is a truly thought provoking and blissful experience to pick up this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Constant Gratification and "Elective Humiliation", March 2, 2005

By 

Bruce Robinson (Wilton, CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Writing My Yoga: Poems for Presence (Paperback)

The vibrancy and dynamic of human experience is uniquely captured moment by moment in Fran Shaw's latest collection Writing My Yoga: Poems For Presence.

I was in particular struck by the fourth chapter in her collection, "Elective Humiliation," which emphasizes the turbulence and pressure of garnering self-confidence and maintaining a certain image socially as well as personally. An insightful Shaw personifies the vulnerability of superficial pride in a coinciding poem titled "Ruffled Feathers" using images of birds and plumes: "Then sorry tears give way to bits/ of plumage on the ground,/ and mute even my mockingbird;/ my peacock makes no sound." Shaw's poems collectively assert the importance of emotional resiliency and the beauty of a tranquil mind, in such a way to leave the reader at ease in only the presence of nature and self, and with a sense of clear and enlightened optimism.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On The Inside Now - Review for "Writing My Yoga...", September 1, 2004

By 

Donny Raus (Stamford, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Writing My Yoga: Poems for Presence (Paperback)

Writing My Yoga: Poems For Presence
Author: Dr. Fran Shaw

From the author who brought you "50 Ways to Help You Write" and "Write It Up", comes her latest work, an intimate collection of poetry from the memoir of Dr. Fran Shaw. "Writing My Yoga", is a compilation of work from Shaw's weeklong retreats in the Swiss Alps, featuring award winner "Guru on Ice," Poetic Journeys 2004-2005.

"Writing My Yoga" is undoubtedly the best thing to hit shelves this summer. Very few pieces are as intimate and insightful as those contained in this book. Each poem brings about awareness and appreciation of the entire world that surrounds us. Uniquely structured, each section contains a brief background description setting the mood for the poems within it.

Shaw has revitalized the art with her passion for poetry. Each poem is so carefully composed, with words strategically chosen to leave the greatest impact on the reader. So keen in her senses and receptive to all that surrounds her, Shaw so perfectly captures what so many of us take for granted and overlook, the beautiful and vibrant world that surround us each day.

As time elapses, you'll find it is extremely easy to lose yourself within these pages. So attentive to detail, each poem is seamlessly woven into a story of self-realization and personal growth. So pure and untainted, Shaw's words will penetrate your mind, exposing the innocence and ability to open your eyes and see the world as it is. It is relatively easy to get lose track of all time, leaving yourself with the question, "is this how a moment expands so that time slows down?" (Benchmark).

So don't just let these words pass you by; emerge yourself in it. Inside Shaw gives you 5 simplistic steps to assist you in writing your own poems for presence. "Fill the world with your poems." Take the time and allow yourself to create something beautiful; take your own journey towards self-realization and personal awareness. Soon you will acquire the skill of being able to break away from the present and to live and absorb the moment.

So open your mind and your senses and allow yourself to be emerged in the poetry. Awaken to the around you, "a world more radiant than we ever dreamed of!" (Snow Gems). An adventure waits for you!

-D.Raus