Blossoming Lotus Pose

A poem for blossoming into the fullness of being.

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This week’s poetry feature is written & narrated by

Corie Feiner

as part of our Witnessing the World Come Alive poetry submissions series.

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BLOSSOMING LOTUS POSE
(Vikasita Kamalasana)

It is hard enough to be born of mud 
and to know your roots ain’t worth a damn, 
that so many things you tried to do in life 
just didn’t sprout. 

To bloom, to really bloom and scoop your arms
beneath the leaves of your legs and lift them 
away from the heavy ground is to have 
faith that you can hold yourself 

with an unshakeable trust that I know 
lies dormant somewhere inside each 
and every one of us.  So much of our lives 
are spent in the dark, 

so much of our lives are spent not knowing 
if we will drown, but I tell you this—
each night as I sink into slumber I remind myself  
I am not the first flower who has tried to blossom 

and has sometimes failed. And I am not 
the first one to worry what the world will look like
after I die. It is hard enough to wake every day 
and hope it will all, somehow, get better 

without me. But even if only for a moment 
I can, despite the odds, shine— my heart unfurling 
fully towards the storm-tossed sky, my belly 
bursting into so many seeds that I will let them 

flow down the river with nothing but hope. 
Then I can say, I am born of sludge 
and I did it anyhow. And I, too can bloom.