How to Create Space for Poetry in the Body?

Gunes Coban
3 days ago
5 min read

This is a question that has been whirling in my mind for a long time now. Actually ever since I have started writing the book or the so called Manual-Textbook- Meditations. When I was… hold on a minute, I did not start this blog the usual way. Well, It is Tuesday, and I am a day late writing this blog. But yesterday I was so busy with other things that I did not have the time. However right now it is 12:08, I am hungry but sitting here because it is the best time to write this week's blog.

So, this question has been occupying me for some time, because, as I am going over all the lessons, I remember these times when the poetry happened in the participants' bodies. These are the moments that I cannot forget, not only as an image but also as a sensation that remains in my body memory. It is like witnessing a flower open slowly when filmed, so that the opening of the blossom is in a continuous flow.

I remember talking a lot about poetry in the past, eagerly wishing for these poetic moments to unravel in the movement, waiting for “the” moment when the participant’s skin got goose bumps, or their iris dilated and the skin blushed (there are more reactions resulting from that moment in the body, but I will spare you the details… maybe you can remember if you have ever experienced such a moment).

Therefore came this question and I still don’t have a clear answer, but the possibilities are coming to me in waves.

Speaking of waves, I must share with you that this past week I have been travelling back to Prague and on my journey I had the chance to admire a couple of seashores… all of which had various wave qualities. I was in storms with tremendous winds, and then again on sunny days with gentle breezes.. I took refuge in watching the waves:

When you watch the waves long enough, you realize that the wave’s energy corresponds to certain states in your being. And that state of being starts unfolding inside of you, you start an inner conversation that sometimes even transfers to your lips and you find yourself whispering gently into the sound of the waves, all by yourself.. or in my case with Gigi always around me. Yes this is what happened to me on this journey back home from Corsica. The waves led me to many inner conversations, gentle, compassionate, calming.

You may not find the direct relation with the waves and the poetry in the body ideas… but I think that there is one.. and I will try explaining it here.

Just like watching the waves and letting them open something in you… when I watch a body dancing and coming to a deep connection with what is happening inside, I see the poetry unfolding slowly. It happens in me as well in the person who I am witnessing.

Of course in this moment the words come out of my depths, they travel right into my mind, just like when I let the waves touch me and allow me to whisper words into their music. And it is a delicate moment. I receive the poetry that is happening, I see it, the participant feels it (sometimes not), I would like to express it.. however there is this moment of silence. I don’t always know how to express it.. because any description can alter the experience or can put it in a place and fix it, determine it… magic in dance is so ephemeral… It is difficult to fix it and keep it forever. The magic happens, you experience something and then it is gone.

Just like waves and their music, each time they hit the shore they are different and they fade away instantly.

Coming back to my question at the beginning of this blog: How to create such moments or opportunities so that this magic happens? In terms of facilitation (and this is certainly going to be a chapter or more than one item of meditation) I as a facilitator try not to talk about poetry so much, not to describe, or define it, but waiting for it can take such a long time.. and when it happens one needs to say it somehow, so that it somehow is pronounceable. One would need to have the courage of a poet: firm and clear, without fear, saying the essence of what they see and feel.

Instead I try to go the other way… now this is going to be very difficult to explain, so bear with me.

Remembering the sensation in my body when I witness such a magical moment of deep movement poetry, I try to create the little invitations of tasks which serve like an inspiration. It is like encouraging the movement and coinciding with the music so that the participant can feel and become aware of the magic unfolding in their body. Then I wait, and it always happens, the movement happens, the poetry of the participant comes to daylight and I can admire it from the distance, from the place where I am as an attentive, curious and calm witness.

I think that poetry needs to stay in the eyes and the heart of the witness, rather than the words. In fact the more we, as witnesses, feel the poetry and have a soft relationship with it- like admiring the wave from the shore instead of jumping into it- we can allow the participant to live the poetry.

This makes me think again dear reader, that I am completely unable to continue writing. I think I have to reflect on these lines myself, and allow the right words to emerge from my thoughts.

But one more thing that comes: writing has always helped me to bring clarity into this process… it somehow connects what I feel to what I think or imagine. Therefore, after seeing such moments of poetry I try writing it down… and I feel that the more I experience the poetry of my own body when I practice, the better I find inspiration in writing. It is like the sand on the seashore that changes, empties, fills up with things that the waves bring. After experiencing these deep magical moments during a dance… the poetry of these moments live on in my body, until I find the space and quiet moment to take paper and pen and let the words form into written language.

I hope I haven’t been too confusing… but just in case I let you have the next images to contemplate and dream about.