Poetry can so often depict the sensory experience so much more effectively than prose. CranioSacral Therapy can be described and written about – I should know – I wrote a whole book about it! But it cannot really be fully understood until we get to feel it in our own bodies and receive a CranioSacral Therapy session.
I felt that a poem about CST would be a great way to begin my book in order to convey the sensorial aspect of the work. I will often begin my talks on CST by inviting everybody to close their eyes and listen to this poem paying attention to what sensations they feel in their bodies.
My friend and fellow HayHouse author and poet Nancy Levin accepted my invitation to write a poem about her experiences of receiving CST titled, “whole”. Thank you, Nancy, for sharing your heart and soul about CranioSacral Therapy!
After you read this poem, I’d love to know about your experience of CST.
Kate xx
whole by Nancy Levin
while her hands navigate
the map my body makes,
it's the radiating rhythm
of vibration and stillness
that now allows me
to receive what it hides
and translate all it has to tell.
this journey to knowing,
deep in my essence,
that i am loved.
no matter what i do or don’t do,
even if i don’t do anything i will be loved.
but to believe, i needed courage.
i found it in my body.
my body,
a treasure chest,
its cellular secrets under lock and key
until the moment they were ready to be freed.
in the body
love first develops as hunger.
these walls have cellular memory.
there is a haunting here.
tight fitting skin,
barely wrapping bones
in dehydrated desert conditions
are infused with vitality
fleshed out and expanded
nourished and recalibrated
buoyant.
sensation returning and there,
my breath still held,
i felt full for the first time.
my power is very confusing.
and although my legs just want to run
i can feel my feet begin to find their roots,
sourcing safety for my strength.
i found my grounding
and what feeds me
in asking for help
from an intuitive hand.
my body,
once a fortress,
now begs for entry
and re-entry.
the thaw begins like this,
after being frozen in place
for so long,
waves of flame and prayer
release me,
finally locating the passage
from my heart,
revealing the way to healing.
and so in the softening,
i learn that love
presents in many forms:
in flames on candles carried
in kisses and wishes of peace
in snow surrounding a mountain waterfall.
my body melts
outside its lines.
my thoughts,
my own
for the first time.
and as pieces of me
return or arrive,
desire alone senses
the rise and fall
of what’s alive
inside.
and now,
stripped of all
i once defined
myself by,
it takes only a moment
to notice
i have always been
whole.
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