BODYPSALMS

Into the Deep                                 Dobee Snowber

Each day is a hol(y)day
a place for presence
no day is more special than another
how you come to the day can be sacred

Remember the simple things –
expanse of one breath
limb of one branch
love in your heart

Life asks us to
welcome the unexpected
have compassion on the expected
chase curiosity

Know you will not get everything done
written, wrapped or made
celebrate incompletion

Come back to quiet
may your body be a zen garden
nap daily, practice slowness
greet the ordinary with fresh eyes
here are the echoes of the divine

Drink from your own deep well
and spill when necessary.

Artwork – “Shift in Direction” by Dobee Snowber

In a time of distancing
retreat to the interior
wake to existence
imbued with birdsong.

Underneath the visible
lies a wellspring of reserve
bordering the invisible.

Drink the nectar
sweet liquid of the infinite
where the soul can blossom.

Even in the midst of sorrow
inside our deepest yearnings
we are pollinated by love.

Imperfect prayers
nested in the body
are a portal to the holy.

Artwork  “New Chapter” by Dobee Snowber

The present moment offers
inner immensity
through times of transition.

Let yourself be astonished
when you are halted
to a moment of wonder
when your old routine dissolves

Release your sinews through all –

hope, loss and comfort

Know the creative life
calls for another order

Allow for the fallow
circle back to the quiet

deep within your body
wooing you
to a new chapter.

      “The space between” by Dobee Snowber

The body knows
when its been violated
cheated from its own voice
the terror, looks, stares, unwanted
touches, violence, penetrations
without consent
horror multiplied within the skin

The skin knows the heart
what lies at the truth
of the untouchable
a heart aching – long
after the event
lasting a lifetime

The flesh knows truth
cries out often
for what occurred in the tissues
Now is the time
to let the body
SPEAK LOUDLY

Proclaim the real
spirit and body are not separate
partners in creation and creating

Let the body have its way
wisdom defies gravity
Here is a hunger
beyond rhetoric
held in the cells

Now is the time
to LISTEN

Acer Davidii Bark in the UBC Botanical Garden

A found poem from Hildegard of Bingen’s words in the 12^th c.

Your light cannot be contained by space
You are a shadow of the Living Light
no depth, height, or breadth can hold you

You hold us, radiant one
I shutter in your midst

Veriditas

awakening and greening
all that lives
glittering, glistening, luminous
You stir everything into quickness
dying and rising in everyday life
Here is Fecundity

You are
a fiery life in the essence of God
the flame above the beauty in fields
You shine in the waters
burn in the sun, moon, stars

What a miracle
to be awake
inside your breathing.

May we be kissed
by you
in our innermost regions.

Shadow Play
by Dobee Snowber

there are worlds beyond the one
you live in
beneath you in the magma
beside you in the wind
inside you in dreams

layers exist within the archaeology
of your heart’s knowing
sometimes it only takes a drop
of truth which resonates
to remember there is another way

where the answer to issues
is not another meeting
or change of direction, drive or data
but a turning to the inward pool of
I N T U I T I V I A
an intuitive’s call

the researcher may look for data
but there is a data of the body
spiritsongs of the cells
beckoning the child in you
to come alive

there is a physical core one needs to stand
but an internal core
will light you through the shadows
break you into humility
and glow beyond
what is known

Welcome back to the familiar
the land of the perplexed
where paradox reigns
and heart, mind, and body
are not in sync with
harmony, congruence or flow
and no matter how diligent
you are to reflect,
problem solve, brainstorm or bodystorm
it sits as a big mountain
in front of you
and cannot be climbed with bare feet

you are in the terrain of paradox
the geography of the unknown
where the brittleness of bone
lives amongst the stars
your task is to breathe deep
into the place you are perplexed

Take shoes for the journey
these aren’t any shoes
but these are your dancing shoes
the ones that look like sneakers
but have a support for your arch

Life holds continual
places of dissonance
it doesn’t matter the source:
disappointment or sorrows
with relationships, health or finances
Know this:  P A R A D O X
will always be there
singing at the door
waiting for you to

Put your dancing shoes on
give yourself the support you need
a bigger arch for life
and treat paradox as your partner
hold it tenderly
romance her and put your
arms around the dilemmas
soften your relationship
towards not knowing.

Breathe into uncertainty
knowing this is the
essence of life
and when it comes
know you are invited
once again into
the spirituality of practice:
loving-kindness towards
all that is not resolved
in your heart.

AFTER GLOW by Dobee Snowber

Even when we don’t desire it God is ripening.  Rilke

There are many seasons
each has its own texture of waiting
when the season arrives you know

When the rains or first snow descends
you do not look for
your bathing suit or take out
the box of gloves and winter hats
when the burning sun reveals her face

It just is – and all the waiting
for the season does not
help its commencement
it is a quiet knowing
the state of weather changes

So it is with the art of waiting
a long arc of patience
fueled from within
the well of not knowing
a resting in the unknown
trusting in the timing
for all ripenings.

You cannot rush the tomato’s growth
if  picked before its time
the bold red juice will not split open
surrender to the duration of your own  growth

Not all things grow in the same time or cycle
nor does any human being grow in the same fashion
physically or inwardly
There are some seasons in life
that have made their way with you
and others you are still living

in the in-between of waiting
is a fertile riparian zone
an edge which is the center

When one ripening comes
another will need to come
waves of birth, death and renewal.

Relationships too have their own timing
of comings and goings, but always
it is about your own ripening
that Beloved is concerned with.

Trust in your own inner journey
know your soul is being wooed to the depths

 Embrace the rhythm of your own spiritual path
the advent of waiting is an avenue for joy
and patience is a return to
a long inward glance of the great silence
which holds all things.