Celeste Snowber: Birdsong lessons

What do the birds teach us
in these times of pandemic?

Vocalizing sounds as music
greeting dawn in a universal language
where tweets, cackles, trills, pecks
are a prayer unto themselves
monovocal melodies from song sparrows
pitch, tempo, beats and whistles
vibrato of feathers, buzzes of warblers

Dialects and tones of plumage
go beyond boundaries

Is there not an iconography of winged creatures
inviting us to recollect what to feed on?

Swallows forage in the sky
we need manna from the heavens
soul food in times of difficulty.

I come from a lineage
of Armenian genocide survivors
where sustenance from above
inspired steps to move forward

and once again
consider birdsong.

Published in the Armenian Weekly

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

Celeste Snowber: an alphabet of longing

Migration, 2017                                                                         Marsha Nouritza Odabashian

an alphabet of longing

there is not enough letters

in the alphabet to define

the characteristics of longing

sketched into the Armenian soul

varied, complex and complicated

as the cuisine of food

the alphabet of longing

has aromas which sit

long after is recognized

even words don’t express

the inexpressible haunts

where yearning aches

in the dance of migration

Celeste Nazeli Snowber

Celeste Snowber: worried for love

Love in the ruins, 2016                                     Marsha Nouritza Odabashian

Do you have your hat on?
what was your mark on your test?
did you do better than her?
did you turn off the lights?
what about the heat?
   was it turned down?
did the bills get paid?
is the chicken defrosting?
was there enough color in
your cooking, or fabric, or paint on canvas
or your cloth cover on your book?

Did you remember – The Turks killed the Armenians?
Did you remember?

Remembering was a big VERB in my house growing up.
Did you remember?

My Armenian mother said, “You are my star
of miracles - I couldn’t have you
 I finally conceived and bore you”

We are all miracles -
here, when we might have been
forgotten, not born, killed or bled in survival

Do you remember I love you?

Worried for love


Celeste Nazeli Snowber

Celeste Snowber: Bodypsalm for Remembering back your Passion

Remember back the body

flames in the belly

calling one to live

as each day is the first and the last

Your life is a precious

entity of cells and blood

quirks and sentences of glory

Remember back the passion

don’t let the awe

slip from your fingers

toes, hips, pelvis and voice

Draw back into presence your own calling

for what you are meant to do and be

on this glorious planet

coupled with the paradox of terror and beauty

It is not only the earth

which needs greening

but your own precious soul

sometimes lost in the meetings, emails or laundry.

Remember back all of you

messy and unpredictable

veins pulsing with a hopefulness

to thirst for more.

Hunger is your spiritual director

Coming in all forms –

discontent or agitation

Press on to what is nudging you

breathing you back into

inhabiting your own body

The calling of your life

lies at the door

waiting for you.

Celeste Nazali Snowber