This is not a Yoga Mat #poetry #dVerse

This is not a yoga mat, this is
muscles tensed and taught
and sweat, this is
three house moves and
two different countries 
this is acceptance of the moment,
this is my homelike place, this is 
exactly where I need to be, this is
my safe space, this
is where I grow:
A push beyond the boundaries of my comfort zone;
a place where I find peace
within myself and with the world at large;
this is getting sober
this is losing love
and finding it again.
This is not a yoga mat
this is the cornerstone of my
moveable church
this is my breath within
this (is
my) place of worship. 

© Experimentsinfiction 2021, All Rights Reserved

Written for dVerse

Mish is hosting dVerse Poetics today, and she has asked us to write an object poem, or more specifically:

Choose an object from your home or outdoors. Look past the obvious characteristics and uses of this object. Spare us the details. Instead, take us to the connection that it has made with you or what it represents.

What better subject for such a challenge than my beloved yoga mat? You can see the marks where I have practiced my poses time and time again. But yoga isn’t really about the physical postures. It’s about connecting with the divine within ourselves. So it does seem like much more than an object to me, as I’ve tried to illustrate in the poem above.

48 thoughts on “This is not a Yoga Mat #poetry #dVerse

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  1. I love it, Ingrid! It’s certainly moved around a lot, been your constant companion and home from home – as well as your place of worship.

  2. And this was stunning this yoga matt you call home where your blood, sweat and tears have been shed and carried you to who your are today. Brilliant, bursting love and sunshine. LOVE this and how couldn’t I. I might have to do a play off this one for my newsletter. Bravo! 👏👏👏👏❤️

  3. Wow, I found this to be very moving. It is inspiring and comforting to see the connection this yoga mat has made with you, giving you the constant you needed through all those twists and turns of life.

  4. This is not a yoga mat more a condensed life history and a reaching out to God where ever or whatever God might be! a fine piece of writing.

  5. I never could have imagined that a yoga mat or a poem about a yoga mat would make me cry. 😢
    A sacred (sweaty) space that you described so beautifully. 🧘‍♀️ 💖

  6. I don’t have a yoga mat, but everything in this poem resonates with me, most delightfully “the cornerstone of my invisible church.” Interesting that you and I both included the word cornerstone in our responses to this prompt. Namaste.

  7. This demonstrates how much an object can mean to us. It seems that this yoga mat is actually a doorway for you.
    I really liked your ending lines,
    this is the cornerstone of my
    moveable church
    this is my breath within
    this (is
    my) place of worship

    Well done.

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