Locs, Spoken Word &Yoga: Meet HawaH

Like most inspiration, I found this through a yogi friend via fb and fell in love with this… The Poetry Of Yoga Book Series brings together many of the top yoga teachers out there, poems from hundreds around the world… just wonderful 🙂

Meet the guy who made it happen… HawaH

A beautiful combination of loss, spoken word poetry and a holistic approach. This guy is awesome 🙂

“The new mission I charged myself with was to help kick-start and harness a modern day renaissance of Hafiz, Mirabai, Kabir and Rumi. I figured I could do this through expanding the literary tradition of yoga to include the cultural perspective of the 21st century. Most of the celebrated mystic poet yogis have long been deceased. I envisioned the book as a platform for a new body of work reflecting on how yoga continues to shift the landscape of human consciousness and civilization. A book anthology of modern-living poetic voices was exactly what I was being called to create. I knew they were living amongst us, and simply needed a platform to share their existential expressions.

I began to accept online submissions of poetry in October of 2010 for the book. Over the next six months I received over 1,800 pages of poetry from 16 different countries. The outpouring of breath-giving poetry revealed that I was not the only one with this idea. There came a point, during the final week of submissions, when over 35 poems were submitted each day! I officially closed submissions on April 15, 2011.

To supplement and excite people about the idea, I asked living master teachers and writers from around the world to also contribute poetry to the project. I wanted to get their voices in the mix, and began sending out invitation letters over email to those I knew. I planned to integrate and combine the words of established teachers with everyday people, as well as participants who attended The Poetry of Yoga workshops.

And so I fished for poetry from the far reaches of the globe… searching for the undiscovered modern day Rumis and Hafizs. Posting the International Call for Submissions on websites, list-serves, and using social marketing tools to get the word out. It seems it might have worked. What began as a one-human guerrilla operation became a poetic movement, harnessing social media for extensive outreach in gathering a plethora of submissions.

The reading of all the poetry that came in for the anthology has been an absolute pleasure and joy. It was an honor to have my finger on the pulse of such creative, soul-inspiring, and mystical poetry from around the world. I included poems from Sri Lanka, Ireland, Philippines, China, Wales, Guatemala, India, Norway, Australia, Japan, Pakistan, Romania, Mexico, England, South Africa, Brazil, Canada, etc… in the the books to assure the anthology contained a diverse chorus of voices that represented different geographical regions of the world.

Now, the other part of the mission is for this anthology to raise money for the dynamic work of a great non-profit organization called One Common Unity. Ultimately, I hope these books, will provide a sustainable source of revenue for the work they have been doing since the year 2000. One Common Unity supports a movement for peace education and the building of a non-violent culture through music and art. More specifically, they facilitate arts-based health and wellness, conflict resolution, and nonviolence education for inner-city youth.

Spiritual warriors, compassionate renegades, lovers of truth and seekers of wisdom… the time is now… let these words breathe through the pores of your skin. Let your mind stir, the hairs on your arms stand, and let this be a reminder that we have not lost our souls.

Regardless of your race, nationality, sexuality, age, class, religion, or gender, there is something in this book for everyone. Get the book and read in awe and wonder… as I did… I hope you do… embrace all the magical poetry in this collection. Take it around the world with you and let it serve proof of the modern day poetic soul of humanity.” [Read the full story here]

Poetry is his passion!