Notes From My Path

Poems

Pieces from a practice, written along the way. Many of these were born during my yoga teacher training, when study and stillness kept spilling into words.

An Inside Job

By Matt Payne

Written during my yoga teacher training while studying ahimsa, the first of the yamas, the practice of non-harming. Seven stanzas on where non-harming actually begins: not out in the world, but in how we hold ourselves.

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Unity Revealed

By Matt Payne

My interpretation of the lotus as a symbol of the human path: roots in the mud, bloom toward the light, and the quiet recognition that the unity we're reaching for was inside us all along. Written during yoga teacher training.

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Family

By Matt Payne

A poem of repair and gratitude, dedicated to my wife. On the place where we laugh, cry, grow, and return to each other, centered by her strength.

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Wonder

By Matt Payne

Written from a place of deep curiosity and openness, an early recognition of awareness and intuition. Six lines, each shorter than the last, until only wonder remains.

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Water Light

By Matt Payne

Inspired by a majestic river in an ancient land. Light glides from the sun on faith alone, finds a fleeting moment of union, and transforms everything it touches. On flowing along life's many paths.

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Butterfly Petals

By Matt Payne

On stripping away life's many labels and being left with a deep understanding of self energy and the unifying power within each of us. A soul rises through beauty and fear, bloom and release, arriving somewhere it was always meant to be.

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