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.
Celeste Nazeli Snowber, PhD is a dancer, writer and award-winning educator who is a professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University, outside Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She has published widely and her books include Embodied Inquiry: Writing, living and being through the body, as well as two collections of poetry. Celeste creates site-specific performances in the natural world exploring ecology and the arts. Celeste is finishing a collection of poetry connected to her Armenian identity which will be accompanied by a one-woman show. Her mom immigrated to Boston right before the Genocide, and Celeste integrates poetry and dance as a way of excavating identity.
Latest posts by Celeste Nazeli Snowber (see all)
- For Artsakh - October 5, 2020
- Privilege on my ancestors’ backs - June 6, 2020
- Birdsong lessons - May 18, 2020
Beautiful!
Thank you for this