Words unformed;
they linger
and dwell in
feeling,
somewhere inside me.
You ask me,
tell me about your being with this place?
and things shift.
Words summoned,
they move
and clumsily,
emerge.
I don’t realise
until
the
words
come
out
what my being with
is.
I meet my being with
as the words pass
from my
lips.
From life in the
somatic realm
to
life on the
outside,
my being with and I, and we
emerge.
Image: David Millard.
Being with Country 
bloody lovely!
essence of interconnectedness and embodiment captured perfectly 🙂
Reblogged this on 50 DAYS and commented:
It must be the month for poetry! This poem captures the essence of interconnectedness with our environment and embodiment. So simple…
Like or Share if you have a similar experience and visit ‘Being with Country’ for more insightful words from the soul.
Nia, I’d be really grateful if you could refer me to any key articles/texts about ‘somatic knowing’ – it’s a term I’ve only just come across in the past few weeks. Maya Ward talks about it in ‘The Comfort of Water: A River Pilgrimage’, and I have a hunch it may prove as a lens for my own research… wishing you well.
Hi Nina, here are some texts which you might find useful. I hope that your work is going well! x
Amann, T 2003, ‘Creating Space for Somatic Learning within Transformative Learning Theory’, paper presented to Fifth International Conference on Transformative Learning, Teachers College, Columbia University, October 23-25, 2003.
Heshusius, L 1994, ‘Freeing Ourselves from Objectivity: Managing Subjectivity or Turning toward a Participatory Mode of Consciousness?’, Educational Researcher, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 15-22.
Butterwick, S & Selman, J 2012, ‘Embodied Knowledge and Decolonization: Walking with Theater’s Powerful and Risky Pedagogy’, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, vol. 2012, no. 134, pp. 61-9.
Heshusius, L & Ballard, K 1996, ‘How Do We Count the Ways We Know?’, in L Heshusius & K Ballard (eds), From Positivism to Interpretivism and Beyond: Tales of Transformation in Education and Social Research (The Mind-Body Connection), Teachers College Press, New York.
Mathews, F 1991, The Ecological Self, Routeledge, London.
Siegesmund, R 2004, ‘Somatic Knowledge and Qualitative Reasoning: From Theory to Practice’, Journal of Aesthetic Education, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 80-96.
Slavin, S 2003, ‘Walking as a spiritual practice: the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela’, Body and Society, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 1-18.
Tacey, D 1995, Edge of the sacred : transformation in Australia Harper Collins, Blackburn.
Varela, FJ, Thompson, E & Rosch, E 1991, The Embodied Mind: Cognitive The MIT Press, Cambridge