Celeste Snowber's contributions to our Call for Poems on the topic of epidemics, illness, medicine, death and healing

Celeste Snowber of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, has shared these original works. APP thanks her. 

Let poetry be the transport

Let poetry be the transport
to the world beneath the words
where new words are born
amidst the volcanic ash
of one’s own grief
or the sweetness of a meal
cooked and eaten with love.
A passage exists
to the hymns of your heart
in a time of limitation
15 th c. poet and priest Mkrtich Naghash
reminds us that we are all exiles
Here is wisdom known in the flesh.
Take courage from the lineage
the poetic steeped in the Armenian soul –
proverbs, odes, love songs and lullabies,
chants, folk tales, poems and laments
all a pilgrimage to what calls us
to the alphabet of yearning.
Be your own bard; migrate
to your own beautiful life
Naghash says an exile’s heart is tender
May the poet within you
waiting in the silence of dawn
carry you over to tenderness.

Bodypsalm for Uncertainty

May the plans you cancel

return you to another life

the one waiting as a patient lover

wondering when you will arrive

to the shore of your inner ocean.

In the midst of restrictions -

self-isolation and social distancing

take some ingredients for the journey

probiotics for the soul

the curiosity for small things

quince and daffodil blooming

sipping tea slowly

the free range of kindness

daily practices of breathing deep

reading poems and calling a friend

Drink in kindness and compassion

as you live in a time of not-knowing

become intimate with shadow

live creatively in dangerous times

alive to what comes

a meditation on wonder

calling you to soften

to the unknown.

Celeste Nazeli Snowber