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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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


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
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Perception
It's still dark when I open the back door to let in the cat, but something calls me to step out into the cool stillness. At the edge of...

Celeste Boudreaux
Nov 13, 20213 min read
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Beginnings, Part 2
I wrote that "For Celeste" poem in 2012 when I was in the middle of a health crisis that had set me on a path of desperately seeking a...

Celeste Boudreaux
Jan 2, 20203 min read
25 views
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