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Animate Dust: Poems for Embodiment

Updated: Apr 4, 2024


Embodiment Poetry | Denver, CO | Fratres Dei Spiritual Direction and Ministries

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.



To My Body

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.



Devour

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.



Cathedral

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.



Arrows

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


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Fratres Dei Spiritual Direction operates on the stolen land of the Arapaho, Ute, and Cheyenne peoples. We acknowledge the past and present crimes of the Western settlers of this land from whom the Fratres Dei team traces their bloodline and cultural heritage. We commit to supporting the present and future prosperity of Indigenous peoples. If you are interested in advocating for the rights of Indigenous peoples, please visit narf.org

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