The Book

Authentic poetry holds the body’s waking dreams—the truth the embodied spirit came to fulfill.” Thus Debra K. McCall opens her chapter on Conscious Co-Creation in her unique book Poetry the Body Knows.

Unique from several points, this book combines a philosopher’s love of understanding, a poet’s sensitivity to language and expression of subtle human currents and a healing map at the end of each chapter called Road Map.

Such an expansive, ambitious undertaking leads naturally to over extension: the poetry too flimsy, the healing part too frail, the philosophy not useful in the tear and rush of daily life. McCall avoids all three pits and does so through the essential element in any book: the language.

Consider the statement offered above. Then reflect upon some lines of her poetry, “When there is no choice you lie down in the mud and make peace with it…This is the dream that named you.”

Her poetry celebrates the natural body of the earth and of herself. Her love poetry verges on Spiritual Love, in the lineage of Rumi, Hafiz, or Blake.
Speak these words out loud, “How many lifetimes have you held me/have I drunk in the depth/of your sweetness/until my body re-entered creation/washed clean in moans of praise?” McCall offers her warm, sensual poetry as an introduction toward the healing of our bodies.

She goes farther. Where many people praise the idea of language as a healing tool, McCall alone among poets combines her own poetry with a series of sensible and easily used practices that soften and open the body of the reader. She encourages us to imagine an Oak Tree, put our back up against its rough bark on a balmy June afternoon…

For more, buy Poetry the Body Knows. For more healing, more meditations on writing, more excellent poetry, buy this book.