Prana Pigeon & Prose: Poems from the Yoga Mat of William Austin

By William Austin

William Austin has been expressing his thoughts, feelings, and faith in God with poetry most of his life. In recent years, his work has taken on a deeper meaning once he began practicing yoga in 2014. When we realize we are the stewards of our own inner light, and that we have the power to change all aspects of our lives, we are truly awake. This collection is an introspective collection of poems that grapples with the accepting responsibility of accepting our own sovereignty.

"Prana Pigeon & Prose" reflects one man's journey into the self, by the self, with himself— a journey that continues unto this very day. Once we start down the path, traveling towards home, we begin the process of healing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098366346

William Austin

William Austin has deep-seated roots in Cedartown. Three of his great-grandfathers enlisted in the Confederate army in Cedartown and served the duration of the war. As a youth, William washed cars and learned auto mechanics working for Bill Byrom at Byrom's Auto Center on the corner of West Avenue and College Street. As a delivery boy for Hunt's Drug Store, he knew the location of every street in town and most of the residents. While serving a four-year enlistment in the U.S. Air Force, he followed the Bulldogs by subscribing to the Cedartown Standard in places as far away as Korea. It In 1989, William and his family settled in Aiken, South Carolina.

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© 2020 William Austin

Living Water Yoga-Austin Art

Lockport, IL

Prana Pigeon & Prose:

Poems from the yoga mat of William Austin

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the Author or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of any license permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

Published by: Living Water Yoga-Austin Art

Cover Design: William Austin

A CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Print ISBN: 978-0-578-68181-8

eBook ISBN: 978-1-098-36634-6

Edited & Printed by:

Book Baby Publishing Services

7905 North Crescent Blvd

Pennsauken, NJ 08110

This book is lovingly dedicated to my mother Caryl, my fellow artists, poets, musicians, yoga teachers, and all those everywhere, who seem to have received an extra helping of feelings from the Creator.

Ohm-Shanti-Shanti-Shanti

Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Awakening & Svadhyaya (Self-Study)

Tapas (Self Discipline) Willpower & Coming into Stillness

Apigraha (Non-greed) & Finding Our Breath

Relaxing into the Journey Inward & Brahmacharya or

(Conduct consistent with God)

Forgiveness & Ahimsa (Non-Harming)

Saucha (Purity, Mind, Body and Spirit) & Atma Prema (Self-love)

Asteya (Non-stealing) & The Present Moment

Satya (truthfulness) Finding & Accepting Our Truth

Joy (Mudita) & Ishvara Pranidhana (Surrender to Divinity)

Santosha (Contentment) & Peace, Beyond All Understanding

Samadhi (Perfect Bliss) and Returning Home

References

ABOUT THIS BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Acknowledgements

I have scribbled down my thoughts over the last 40 plus years many times with little or no recollection of what I had written. Its almost as if these poems were downloaded from a Divine author with me being only a mere mouthpiece. So first of all I would like to acknowledge and thank you for purchasing this book. I can’t even begin to express to everyone how deeply grateful I am for your support. To each one of you who have liked, commented, or shared my poems on social media, or attended yoga classes at Living Water Yoga, where we shared them on many occasions, again I say thank you. I am sending you all the biggest of big bear hugs.

Thank you to all my mentors, and teachers too numerous to name, that helped me to become the man I am today. Thank you to every single person that has assisted me in the creation and publication of this work. I am especially grateful for my grandmother Maxine for reciting poems to me in my youth, and showing me how magical and powerful words can be when arranged in a poetical way. I would also like specifically thank my uncle Dennis for teaching me at a very young age to invite Jesus and the Holy spirit into my heart and life which put me on my spiritual path at the age of 8 even though I was unaware of what a spiritual path was.

A very special thanks to my family and close circle of friends, those that supported me, and tolerated my impatience while assuming the daunting task of formatting this book. Much love to you all. Most importantly I would like to thank God for giving me an extra helping of emotions, and the gift of being able to create feelings on paper with words, that speak and minister to the soul of others that do not have the ability to do the same.

—Bill

Foreword

Please allow me to introduce myself, my name is Susan Avery and I am Bill’s younger sister. My brother Bill is my best friend, my hero, and confidant, and I am so pleased to provide you with a small snapshot of our relationship and introduce his first book. Growing up with him as a child, I was his constant sidekick. Like all the great teams down through the ages; Laurel and Hardy, Batman and Robin, Scooby and Scrappy Doo, or even the Wonder Twins, I ventured into the world by his side and followed him wherever he would go. Regardless of what the activity was, be it church, hiking off to the woods, or fishing, and camping, having Bill as an older brother was quite the adventure. I explored the world around me through his eyes, his vision, and what he deemed were the essential elements in this life. Like typical siblings, we played, we argued, we laughed, but through it all we loved in an unconditional fashion that was woven into the core of our spirits. He has inspired me to dabble in the realm of poetry and art. I am blessed to call him my brother and I am grateful to have traveled this journey alongside of him, forever inspired by him, and so I present this poem The Looking Glass as a gift to my brother Bill: aka Bo, my best friend, my hero, and as an introduction to Bill and his poetry, to all of you. I hope you all enjoy this poetical journey along with Bill, may it enrich your lives as being his sister has enriched mine.

~In Gratitude Susan

The Looking Glass

On the outside of the looking glass, 

Peering thoughtfully in. 

Visions of created images, and people from within. 

Moving in and out between, the rooms and paper walls. 

Glimpses of love appear here and there, 

throughout the shadowed halls. 

Wavering around the illusion, the mirror does reflect. 

Embracing images of desire, shrouded in neglect. 

Emotions rush in swiftly,

like waves from the moonlit tide. 

As they recede back into the ocean,

forever silently hide. Deception takes its toll.

It weathers the soul so deep.

Observing through the looking glass,

my heart begins to weep.

Longing to see the happiness, from the conception of the love. 

Examining the sky carefully, for guidance from above. 

Searching for the sparkle, that used to gleam your eye.

Devastating consequences, a romance gone awry. 

The looking glass is shattered, tragedy assumes the role. 

Causing broken hearts, bestowing an empty hole. 

As time marches forward, and the heart begins to heal. True love a distant memory, The scar forever seal. 

-SBA 2015 

Preface

Bill Austin serves words like a wholesome meal, that nourish one’s soul with his insightful, thought provoking, heartfelt, emotionally engaging and life-enriching poetry. His writings are an exploration of the light and dark which exist within all of us and that span the gamut of the human condition beckoning an invocation of let’s get real as seekers of truth.

Life is blessed to have one

Who speaks with such truth

And is honest to the bone

As we all travel, together

Into the ever-unfolding

Of this Great Mystery of the unknown

Seeking to be held

Within Love’s home..

~William Bennett The Barefoot Poet

Introduction

My love of poetry stems from my grandmother Maxine, as she used to quote poetry to me when I was a boy, it always left me smiling. There was something magical about the way she spoke, and the way the words were arranged in a pattern, that made it supernatural to me, then as it still does today.

In high school, my English professor John Riley also had a great influence on my early love of poetry, as we studied the works of Keats, Wordsworth, Poe, Burns and many others. Most of my inspiration for writing comes from God, some may say spirit, or Universe, my yogic practice, and God’s handiwork in nature, which is all around us, and is always my favorite source.

Presently I’ve been writing and compiling poems for well over 30 years. Although I have written many over the years, the poems I have chosen to place in this compilation I believe represent some of my very best. This collection is arranged in a fashion that represents my yoga journey over the past seven years as a yoga student, yoga instructor, and yoga studio owner. I have shared many of them with my students at Living Water Yoga, and now present them here for you.

They are realizations, and reflections of my journey inward, and my surrender to God, or some may say the divine, which in my opinion is what yoga is all about. This book dives into some basic yoga terminology and philosophy, and also refers to the holy literature of the all the great religions from which the philosophy of yoga was derived. The Buddhist, Christian, Hindi, and Muslim traditions, are all referenced, but this book is not really meant to be a resource on the topic of yoga, but more of a primer for those who have no experience with it.

If you have been practicing yoga for some time, I am certain you will have come to many of the same conclusions, realizations, or may have had similar experiences. I have had some amazing moments on, and off the mat since I began exploring my yoga practice, and I can say with complete honesty it has only deepened my faith. Perhaps your faith has deepened as well, or maybe you are not quite sure yet, either way I hope that you enjoy the journey of your daily practice.

That being said: the poems in this compilation span a full range of topics. They explore all human emotions. Some of them draw from personal experience, others are more general, or were inspired by others. You may wish to use them for the purposes of mantra, or meditation which is such a large part of the practice of yoga, or you may wish to share in a class, or just connect on a personal level. I hope you enjoy them. Remember that you are a divine being of light, we are all brothers and sisters, and most importantly remember God Loves You.

Chapter One

Awakening & Svadhyaya

(Self-Study)

There comes a point in our life when we recognize that we alone are the architect of our own lives. I am not quite sure when it happened for me, but this was not an exact day; it happened over a period of several years, stitched together in my late forties. It was at that point, when I began to take responsibility for all that I have done, was doing, or will do. I began to become awake to the world outside of, and inside of my own. More importantly, I began to self-examine, to take a look at my own internal environment in order to understand why I had seemingly over and over made some of the reoccurring choices aka mistakes I was making in my life.

Svadhyaya or self-study, is the Sanskrit word for introspection. This is totally different from the usual self-loathing we sometimes have a propensity to do, which turns us into a victim, and allows us to blame other people and situations for the poor choices we make. It is only when we start to turn our focus inward, and begin to take a real hard look at the choices we make, why we are making them, and their karmic or energetic actions, that we begin to understand how these actions affect our life, and how those actions we know, will affect others around us. This is not a one-time thing, but a process of continuous learning, the process of being, and becoming aware of all of our own parts, light and dark. Then using what we have learned,