A Poem by Danielle Korneliussen (teacher trainee)

One evening during teacher training Jasprit led the group in a discussion about where our individual creativity comes from.

We [the group of RussaYog teacher trainees] certainly are a group of diverse people who I feel, have a really nice connection too, so I will dare to share one of these odd poems that came flying out of my head one day, out of the clear blue, as I was chopping veggies at the kitchen counter with a big, heavy Japanese hacking knife in my mits. I’m telling you—It just felt like an attack of sorts… That’s right—an attack of wild poetry! As I said in class—I had never in my life written a poem that was more advanced than the roses-are-red variety. When this happened to me, I dropped that ghastly knife which landed just millimeters from my pinky toe and lodged itself in the wooden floor, making that area of the kitchen look like the scene of a grizzly crime!  I rushed toward my desk in the livingroom to grab a pen and paper, and this is what came flying out:

SHOOT THE ENGINE

You take a thing of beauty
You kick it til it’s dead.
You take the bed of sweetness
and smear it til it’s end.
Have you not the shame of heart
to see what this has done
To one that’s put his heart and soul
right into everyone.
Take your blackness out of here
Set it’s soul afire
Leave us with the memories
of he who took us higher.
Shake this need to spit out lies
that lead to devastation.
Shoot the engine—kill the beast
of every bad intention.
Get it through your wasted heads
that what you’ve done has killed
a force of love so strong and vast
that with his art has thrilled.
Replace the hate with hope and grace
and lift your spirits higher
So that we may resurrect our souls
and love this man’s desire.

This poem stems from my belief that it was ultimately the media that led to the demise of Michael Jackson. Through this painful time of reconciling why he is no longer with us, I feel I have come to understand a thing or two about not being led by the magnetic attraction of mass opinion and the devastating effects that it can have on the power of the individual’s freedom to think for one’s self. How does this fit into our yoga training? Which of the 8 limbs of yoga does this concept fit into? Pratyahaar, perhaps?