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"Poetry is a life-cherishing force.
For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the gold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry." - Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook
Expectant Mary: a Quiet Christmas Reflection
holy seed
sprouts and grows
in silence
in darkness
in secret
new life flutters . . .
Celeste Boudreaux
Dec 10, 20241 min read
19 views
0 comments
When Knocked Off Your Feet
When life’s four-by-four fence post /
blindsides you from behind /
and you find yourself cycling through /
all the stages of grief . . .
Celeste Boudreaux
Nov 13, 20241 min read
29 views
0 comments
The Lake in the Rain
In my summer childhood memory / I stand at the edge of the lake / Oblivious to the warm drizzle / A white quilt of mist hovers . . .
Celeste Boudreaux
Oct 7, 20241 min read
30 views
2 comments
How to Start Your Butterfly Life
First, you have to get sick of being a caterpillar. Weary of never-ending consumption, outgrowing your clothes, eyes trained on . . .
Celeste Boudreaux
Aug 21, 20241 min read
20 views
0 comments
Shelter
When a storm overtakes you / the kind that satellites see / as a massive, swirling spiral / its curved arms knocking down . . .
Celeste Boudreaux
Jul 11, 20241 min read
49 views
0 comments
I Dissent, a Prayer for Our Nation
Give us leaders with principles loftier than self-interest.
Give us leaders who speak the language of truth,
not lies, distortions . . .
Celeste Boudreaux
Jul 5, 20241 min read
16 views
0 comments
Tenderness
When you were a girl,
you loved a kitten
with such fierceness
that you ground your
teeth telling her how
cute she was. It took . . .
Celeste Boudreaux
Jun 2, 20242 min read
49 views
4 comments
The Mother Tree
I came to the forest pondering the source of insight and generosity how to be loving and life-giving in a season of culminations and...
Celeste Boudreaux
May 4, 20241 min read
22 views
2 comments
Multiplicity
I used to think I was alone
here within myself
alone in my struggle to be
who
I thought
I ought
to be
Celeste Boudreaux
May 6, 20231 min read
10 views
0 comments
Shitty Shame
Shame is shit From toddlerhood we are taught to hold it, control it to flush it into oblivion Yet, try as we might we are never free of...
Celeste Boudreaux
Apr 15, 20232 min read
11 views
0 comments
Labyrinth Song
How can I walk unhurried through the buzz-clang-flash of a pinball world Take a calming breath in anger’s face and spy the fear beneath...
Celeste Boudreaux
Mar 25, 20231 min read
5 views
0 comments
Queen of the Night
Born on the fourth day of God's great goodness Your Creator crowned you to govern the night You haunt my earliest memories waking me in...
Celeste Boudreaux
Aug 13, 20221 min read
3 views
0 comments
The Egg
I am one who waits within the midnight of this shell I feel my own fragility all the possibilities for disaster cracked exterior and...
Celeste Boudreaux
Oct 23, 20211 min read
5 views
0 comments
I AM
I AM the radiant sunburst, the painted skyscape behind the power lines and strip malls I AM the roiling storm clouds of deep blue gray...
Celeste Boudreaux
Sep 11, 20211 min read
2 views
0 comments
Cast Out into the Deep
Listen to the quiet voice: Cast out into the deep... deep... DEEP... Leave your striving on the surface hurry and stress worry and...
Celeste Boudreaux
Jul 31, 20212 min read
5 views
0 comments
The Stray Kitten
When I was a girl I found a stray kitten Feral and frightened it ran and hid and would not come to my kitty-kitty calls But my love was...
Celeste Boudreaux
May 29, 20211 min read
5 views
0 comments
Yahweh, Breath of Life
Tell me your name, murmured Moses Yahweh, came the answer I AM So you taught us your name an inhale: Yahhh exhale: Wehhh O God who blew...
Celeste Boudreaux
Apr 18, 20201 min read
1 view
0 comments
Beginnings, Part 1
For Celeste I see you, though you try to hide Blending into the wall Daughter of a defective mother (Whose empty eyes betray her lipstick...
Celeste Boudreaux
Jan 1, 20201 min read
17 views
0 comments
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