The Yoga of Inaction
i
I write in praise of non-doing, in a country full of doers and deeds doing.
Winter’s the best time to practice my yoga of inaction, America
Come, twist yourself into a lotus and hum the sacred mantra, zzzzz.
At least, you will be doing no harm.
ii
Out there in Washington, the doers are armed and dangerous with verbs of mass action:
They tell us they will
lower…
raise…
save…
fix…
create…
fight….
bail-out….
pump up…
shut-down…
flood…
redeem…
destroy…..
And they won’t even rest on the seventh day.
iii
In the grammar of our nation, the mood is imperative,
the voice active.
The tense is future.
(And our future is tense).
The American in me cheers.
Wrongs will be righted, the good fight will be fought.
The Indian in me sighs and longs for the passive.
He remembers the past.
iv
Rights can go wrong and good fights go bad, warns the devious old fakir in the corner.
Eli’s Comin’, hisses the 60’s child, shaking her long hair out of her eyes.
It’s Barack, I say, not Eli.
It’s all the same, she says.
The cards say….a broken heart…
v
Reality’s a rope trick.
You think you see a snake, it’s only an old rope.
Just long enough
and fat enough
to swing fools on the end of it.
vi
This is a time for hibernating, for dreaming vegetative dreams in the dark.
We’ve had too many revolutions, too many slogans
Time now for cryptic words, opaque silences.
For darkness and recession.
The cycle must fall.
Lila Rajiva
Copyright February, 2009
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The cards say….a broken heart…
very cool. you have a wicked sense of irony
the old faker, that’s good.
the hand is faster than the eye, so close your eyes, right?
Hey Doug –
Glad you liked it..long time since I wrote any poetry…
It’s actually fakir not faker – although the word does carry that connotation too…
the fakir is a spiritualist given to physical exhibitions of his powers – rope tricks, conjuring etc..
Lila
Great stuff, Lila. (And here I was thinking I’m the only person left who listens to 3 Dog Night!)
thanks Suuni
I liked the 3 Dog Night version…but I like the original version – Laura Nyro’s better…it’s more ominous and the rhythm is more relentless
I didn’t know 3DN’s version was a cover. Now I need to find that original—it sounds like it has more of what I like about that song. Thank you!
Most of her songs went on to become hits when they were covered by someone else…but she was the one who wrote them. She wrote “Stoned Soul Picnic” “Wedding Bell Blues” and “Stony End” too.