Yoga Heart: Lines on the Six Perfections 
By Leza Lowitz
2011 Stone Bridge Press
Reviewed by Mari L’Esperance

"All author proceeds from the sale of the book will go to relief efforts to people and animals affected by the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011."

The poems in Leza Lowitz’s Yoga Heart: Lines on the Six Perfections (2011 Stone Bridge Press) go down like a drink of clear water, without overreaching or pretense. Not only yoga practitioners, but seekers of all stripes will find something useful in these spare, instructive poems inspired by Buddhist teachings—especially, perhaps, those who are looking for a way to clear the extraneous clutter, virtual and otherwise, of modern life and reconnect with their essential selves, with others, and with the natural world. It is also a deeply personal book and includes an introduction written by Lowitz describing her path to yoga and how she has, over the course of many years, found a way to bring its gifts to others, through teaching and writing.

I willingly acknowledge that I approached writing this review with some trepidation. I am not a yoga practitioner and, well… a collection of poems about yoga?!? My negative (read: defensive!) assumptions insidiously wormed their way into me before I’d even opened the book. Instead, as I made my way through this beautifully designed volume, illustrated by Tokyo artist Akiko Tanimoto, I was reminded that my judgments and intellectual defenses are among the very obstacles that prevent me from entering and inhabiting my life and relationships full-heartedly. As I read, I became aware of my receding ambivalence and resistance and felt increasingly more aligned with my true nature—less shut down and cynical, more opened-hearted and hopeful. How emotionally corrective and healing it is to read a book of poems that so joyfully and authentically embraces life and its mysteries, gifts, trials, and inevitable impermanence, and in clear, direct language! How often does one encounter such poems in today’s hermetic poetry world that (often) privileges the intellect over soul and depth of feeling? Lowitz’s poems spring forth from another place—a place we each can tap into if we allow ourselves to loosen our grip on our ego’s defenses and drop down into that well of stillness. Our truest, most necessary poems and creative works come from this place as well. Almost as if I’d partaken of the yoga Lowitz teaches and practices in Tokyo (where she lives with her Japanese husband and their son), I felt realigned, cleansed, and grounded after reading these wise poems. There were moments in my reading when I found myself feeling uncomfortable, felt the urge to turn away from a poem… and then realized I’d been touched in a profound way.

These sixty poems are inspired by the six paramitas (perfections, or qualities) the Buddha encouraged his followers to cultivate in order to lead more meaningful, compassionate lives: generosity, kindness, patience, joy, stillness, and wisdom. Correspondingly, the book is divided into six sections titled, in consecutive order: Dana Paramita: Giving, Shila Paramita: Kindness, Kshanti Paramita: Patience, Virya Paramita: Joyful Effort,Dhyana Paramita: Stillness, and Prajna Paramita: Wisdom. These paramitas, drawn from Mahayana Buddhism’s Lotus Sutra, form the physical, aesthetic, and philosophical framework and foundation of Lowitz’s collection.

These are poems one reads for inspiration and instruction; although they are artfully written, they are each a “mini teaching” where content and intention are the primary components rather than art for art’s sake. From “Devotion”:

Sing, even if to yourself,
even if no one is listening,
and in the singing,
allow your heart
to finally be heard.

Always, the spirit of the Buddha’s teachings is apparent. Here is “Shattered” in its entirety:

Giving is living.
Giving is letting go.

What we hold onto
holds us back.
What we release
allows us to fly.

This simple lesson
takes a lifetime to learn,
yet once learned
is never forgotten.

Like a glimpse of our true nature,
our Buddha nature
in the mirror,
it shatters us.

I love these lines from “Just Be” that speak to interconnectedness, impermanence, the liminal, and our often limited and rigid notions about “what is”:

Inside the body,
the sound
of rain falling.
Outside the body,
rain falling.

In the gap,
all things die
and are reborn.

These lines from “The Choice” went straight to my heart with their searing truth…:

Get off the train of criticism,
or stay where you are if you must—
stuck on the tracks,
blocking your own journey.

You can blame others endlessly
or take responsibility, right now,
for yourself.

…as did these lines from “Seeds”:

Who wants to live forever?
Rather, let your life
ripen completely.

And when it’s time to fall,
let it fall,
lush and full.

Yoga Heart is admittedly not everyone’s cup of tea. If you’re looking for high art, irony, or intellectual hijinks in poetry, look elsewhere. Lowitz does not pretend to be anything but a people’s poet—a purveyor of hard-earned wisdom, a guide and spiritual companion who invites her readers to join her in shedding our ego-bound false selves and embracing our true natures, warts and all, and often for the first time. “In the end, / there’s only the path / and the / wayfarer on it.” I am grateful for this book.

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Leza Lowitz is an award-winning writer, editor, screenwriter, and co-translator. Her work has appeared in hundreds of literary journals and anthologies, including Harpers, Shambhala Sun, The Huffington Post, and The Best Buddhist Writing of 2011. She has published over 15 books, including Yoga Poems: Lines to Unfold By andGreen Tea to Go: Short Stories from Tokyo. Her awards include the PEN Josephine Miles Award, a PEN Syndicated Fiction Award, grants from the NEA and NEH, and the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Award for the translation of Japanese literature from Columbia University. She lives in Tokyo where she owns Sun and Moon Yoga. She can be reached at lezalowitz.com.

Born in Kobe, Japan to a Japanese mother and a French Canadian-American father, Mari L’Esperance was awarded a Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry for her full-length collection The Darkened Temple, published by the University of Nebraska Press in September 2008. An earlier collection Begin Here was awarded a Sarasota Poetry Theatre Press Chapbook Prize. L'Esperance's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, How a Poem Happens (blog), Many Mountains Moving, Poetry Kanto, Salamander, Zocalo Public Square, and elsewhere. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is an Associate Poetry Editor forConnotation Press: An Online Artifact. You can find her online at marilesperance.com.