One of the things I love about poetry is the way it connects us to many of the same thoughts, feelings and emotions that people were experiencing hundreds or even thousands of years ago. Despite all our technological and scientific advances, poetry reminds us that the human experience remains unchanged, it is a beautiful, turbulent journey that can’t be outsourced or automated.


John Dryden

Happy the Man


Happy the man, and happy he alone,

He who can call today his own:

He who, secure within, can say,

Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.

Be fair or foul or rain or shine

The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.

Not Heaven itself upon the past has power,

But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.

“Happy the Man” by John Dryden, was written over 300 years ago, yet it is a translated and condensed segment of the masterpiece “Ode, Book 3” by Horace, written over 2000 years earlier. It’s remarkable how timeless these insights feel today and interesting how closely its themes align with yogic philosophy, despite Horace living thousands of miles from India and drawing influence from Stoicism.

The poem explores the idea of presence, living fully in the moment as the future is uncertain. But more than that, Dryden urges us not to wait for the “perfect” conditions before we start to live our authentic life, instead to make "today his own" regardless of what is happening around us. Yoga is, at its core, a practice of presence. And yet, even after we’ve carved out the time and arrived on the mat, we often let external distractions or imperfect conditions become excuses, keeping us half engaged, rather than fully inhabiting the moment we’ve intentionally created.

A common thread weaving itself through many of the weekly poems, is the idea of knowing thyself. It points to something deeper than simple self awareness. It suggests that true presence isn’t just about paying attention to the moment, but about being at ease within it. That ease comes from a genuine connection to ourselves and an honest acceptance of who we are.