Animate Dust: Poems for Embodiment

This month the Fratres Dei team got together to compile poetry of our own creation about our experiences with embodied spirituality. We invite you to curl up and enjoy, and take a few moments to explore your own body's relationship with the sacred. We also welcome you to leave a comment with your own poetry or musings.

By Rachel Parsons, Founder

Holy ash, animate dust

Stunted conductor, moonstruck cache

I smell the winter in your nose,

carry you from my bed,

scan the grass with your feet.

With your mouth I taste filth.

Your nerves keep me safe

and keep me awake.

You are channel

and dam.

You show me cliffs

and hang me from them.

The conception

that splits.

The growth

and growths.

You warm

and burn.

You sprint, sway, float

break, infect, sprain.

You play, write, know,

block, stop, detain.

Another day.

Senses seen.

More skin to shed;

body to be.

Originally published in Spiritual Direction International's journal, Listen: A Seeker's Resource for Spiritual Direction, October 2019.

By S. T. Gibson, Contributor

There is no greater longing than for the dissolution of the self

in the appetites of the Beloved,

no higher love than the alchemy of blood to wine

and broken bread to surrendering skin

under the hand of an agile magician.

By S. T. Gibson, Contributor

Love turns some people into birds or beggars, 

but you make me into architecture,

into a sanctuary of soft and holy spaces

shaped to catch the sound of your voice.

These eyes: rose windows bathing you in light.

These arms: alcoves open in shadowed embrace.

This heart: a confessional dark enough for your sins.

This mouth: a bell driving away demons

and calling you home.

By S. T. Gibson, Contributor

You pierce me between your lashes

with a glance quick as a tailor’s needle,

and somewhere in history

Saint Teresa falls,

her body full of arrows,

her belly full of molten gold.

More of S. T. Gibson's intoxicating works can be found here and here.

What is your body spiritually longing for? What does that even mean? You are invited to explore through body-based spiritual direction with a trained embodiment spiritual director. Learn more here.

December 2, 2019 | Denver, Colorado

#spirituality #bodytheology #spiritual direction #spiritual advice