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a poem written in the early 1990’s, at a time of being very ungrounded and spaced out:
oh body, bloodfilled one,
redeem my soul
redeem my burning, ashen soul
please turn me inside out
rescue me, body, from my thoughts.
please, hands, please, wake me up
let me fall prey to sensing
sharper glass and harder stone
and warmer skin and water wet as never before.
body. please draw me back from
those places that my mind goes;
please magnetize me to your breasts and
knees and fingernails and even
to your stomach.
invite me to your loud digestive games.
envelop me in fluids.
and let me smell.
and taste.
let me be slave to toes that wriggle in cold water.
don’t leave me alone in this here room
that drones with toneless emptiness
don’t let me orbit on my own
in this colourless universe of
doubts and ideas so lightweight they take off with me
- please, take my hand and take me
down to earth.
thankfully, the body, helped by the wonderful, magical gentleness of the TRAGER approach to bodywork, took me in and helped me focus, away from the crazy, “toneless” zipping around that my mind was engaged in, back into being centered in my body.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Nickie // Feb 22, 2007 at 11:13 am
One of the things that was discussed in my holistic therapies course was the mindbody, and how they are one. We learned about how work on the physical body can help the mind and spirit. We were partnered up and asked to study a therapy. My partner and I chose Trager. I am still fascinated by it, and think it has a lot of merrit.
A Trager therapist was kind enough to donate some time to help us understand Trager, which I was confused by because I couldn’t see videos or pictures and understand it. One thing we discovered when she was working with me was that it is incredibly hard for me to relax my body and just let her work. That’s not uncommon for any of us, but we theorized that I’m more ready to try to react because my sense of feel, or what the doctors refer to as proprioception is how I stay oriented and safe. And ofcourse pain will throw that off.
I really like your poem!
2 isabella mori // Mar 3, 2007 at 3:37 pm
nickie, this is so interesting! i actually used to be a TRAGER practitioner. my teacher called it “the jazz of bodywork” which of course only increased my enthusiasm for it. what you say about reacting to touch being related to increased proprioception makes a lot of sense. it would be interesting to have a more in-depth conversation about that one day … and thanks for linking to the poem!
3 Angelique // Feb 2, 2008 at 3:32 am
This sounds very “early 1990s” — wonder if we were all struggling with the same issues back then?
Seriously, I’m thinking this would make a great melancholy song — very empowering, very vivid. Great stuff!
Angelique’s last blog post..The Challenge: Fall in Love… with Yourself
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