Back to one
only the cat
and immense quiet
is left in this
house, the vibrant
gathering of creative
beings, nourished in
food and candles, chaos
and squabbles, love
and wrestlings, scattered
belongings and longings
made real and now my
three beloved sons, a
tribe of artists have
moved into the city where
I have always wanted to
be, making their way
in a world, living into
the beauty of their voices
in every artistic way
possible, from one family
a part of me wants to be
like our cat Cinder, curled
on the rocking chair, content
in doing nothing as muted
light streams through the
stained glass my mother made
many years ago – a testament
to beauty in the midst of life
perhaps it is all about
making testaments to beauty:
making and raising
children, meals and art,
poems, stories and gardens,
messes, fatigue and mistakes
and always entry points
to wonder.
now I need to be raised or
maybe lowered to a place where
I keep hearing the quiet call
back to the place of not knowing
where the beauty is in the drawing
of one line, the dance of one gesture
the absolute exquisiteness of one breath
back to one, alone, but with all.
~ Celeste Snowber
Celeste Snowber, PhD is a dancer, writer and educator who has integrated the body and spirituality in her work for over twenty-five years. Her essays and poetry are widely published and she is the author of Embodied Prayer. Celeste is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education in the area of the arts at Simon Fraser University. She continues to create site-specific performances by the sea and is the mother of three sons, all a tribe of artists. Her blog can be found at http://bodypsalms.com/.
Read more of ‘s poetry:
– In praise of the kitchen-studio
Lovely to see you here, Celeste. Thanks for your poems.
I take
“muted
light streams through the
stained glass” today as an image for our light reflected through the stained glass of the body/spirit
and then begins the journey to put it into words, dance, paint. etc