Yoka and art (Yoku): Silence

Last night was the final Yoku session of 2014 and we ended the year with the theme Silence. This time the yoga session was very quiet and with lots of slower movements than usual which is ideal for a person like me who would like to perform each movement with lots of accuracy. The yoga session had a few hip and chest openers to get the energy flowing through our bodies.

We ended with a meditation singing 'Ong' repetitively, at our own pace and at our own pitch. We just had to let the sound go from our belly, no control and no thoughts about how it would sound. The sound was breaking the silence and the tones were wonderful. At a miraculous moment we all ended at the same time and at the same pitch.

Immediately after that we started drawing, with charcoal this time on a huge A1-sized piece of paper. We drew our experience of singing (see my finished drawing below). I drew the higher notes at the top of the paper, the lower on the bottom. Lines that started halfway were sounds after taking a breath. The circles represent the 'Ong'-sound: if I sing that my arm draws an O in in the air and not just on paper.

my finished charcoal drawing

After that we were asked to write a four-lined poem, a bit like a Haiku. It didn't need to rhyme, but it should tell our experience of the workshop. I wrote three verses, originally in Dutch, on the left a translation:

Unanimously   /   Eenstemmigheid

but projected separately   /   apart ingezet

one very long breath   /   één hele lange adem

than it is over   /   dan is het voorbij

Out of the everyday   /   Uit het dagelijkse

to the silence and breath   /   naar de stilte en ademhaling

at different pitches   /   verschillende toonhoogten

come together fluently   /   komen vloeiend samen

Sounds of traffic   /   Geluid van het verkeer

draught from underneath the door  /  tocht onder de deur door

singing of women like in a convent  /  gezang van vrouwen als in een klooster

and scratching of charcoal on paper / en gekras van houtskool op papier

We finished the evening with organic and vegan pies, delicious!

This morning I hung up my drawing on the wall with the smallest nails I could find. I quite like how it came out and every time I look at it, I can feel the Ong-sound.