The Poona Poems

A selection of poems written during a 30-year period during which I lived in Osho’s meditation communes, in both Poona, India, and Rajneeshpuram, Oregon.. There are poems about the master-disciple dynamic; about the agonizing first months of beginning to peel the onion of the psyche; about the strangeness of a new culture, and the even-more strangeness of a brief return to San Francisco.. Later, back in Poona…poems about romantic and not-so-romantic love; about hepatitis, about daily life in a magical environment; about the monsoon, and dancing, and foolishnesses and wisdoms of various stripes.

And at the end, surviving a life-threatening health crisis brings poems of gratitude and lifting joy.

There are 156 poems and 6 pages of photographs.

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Some reviews

“With her heart
open to the sky and
her ears tuned to the Mystery,
Madhuri is our perfect guide
for this wondrous journey
in Osho’s garden.”Prartho Sereno, poet laureate of Marin County, California

About Madhuri Z K Akin

Madhuri Z K Akin

Madhuri was born in California in 1952. She studied poetry and dance at UC Riverside, then in 1970 left hitchhiking on her travels, was invited into a film as a dancing extra, ending up in Europe for two years, where she wrote, published, and had unwise teenage misadventures. She returned to San Francisco, where she performed poetry and acted in dubious films. Her younger sister had meanwhile made it to India, where she met the mystic Osho, then called Bhagwan. She sent for her sister and mother to share in the revelation.

Madhuri then spent 30 years in Osho's communes, meditating, working, dancing, and eventually teaching psychic opening.

Her first book, Impassioned Cows by Moonlight, was published by Hanging Loose Press, New York, in 1974. She is the author of nine books, including the memoir Love at Dancing Leaves: a Tantra Memoir, and Mistakes on the Path.

She lives in Hebden Bridge, England.