“The Church says: the body is a sin.
Science says: the body is a machine.
Advertising says: The body is a business.
The Body says: I am a fiesta.”~ Walking Words
To get up off the floor
and dance. It wants to get up
out of a chair and dance; to get out
from behind a desk and dance; to get outside
The body wants to move.
The body wants to move and touch
and betogether with other bodies.
It wants to smell other bodies
and taste other bodies.
It wants to be up to its neck
in body. The body is tired of waiting
and resting beneath the weight
of the mind. The body falls asleep thinking.
It can’t stand the wait
between inaction and action.
It doesn’t want to write
or call somebody, talk or take a nap.
It wants to touch the world of bread
and warm coffee cups
soft cloth and rough cloth, pavement
tree bark and hear car sounds and water sounds.
It wants to tread on things
and to feel the weight of things.
It wants to squeeze somebody
and be squeezed.
It wants hot sun on its back, and breezes.
It wants to jump in water and float.
The body wants to fly.
It wants to feel with every cell
the pull of gravity, and the centrifugal force
of turning. It wants energy and tranquility.
The body wants to be big sometimes
to fill up rooms with shouting
and to fit into small, safe places.
The body wants to vibrate to its own voice
and to feel harmony with other voices
and dissonance.
It wants to dance slow and dance fast
to flow, to thrust, to bend, be still.
It wants to make beautiful lines
and be seen.
It wants to be fat and skinny
to burst out of its seams.
The body wants everything.
It does not want to be bounded
but loves to rub, push and bounce off
surfaces.
© Jim Gunshinan 2013
About the Author:
Jim Gunshinan is a science and religion writer and the Senior Editor of Building Performance Journal in Berkeley, California. He holds a master’s degree in bioengineering from Penn State and a master of divinity from Notre Dame. Ordained in the Catholic Church in 1989, he ministered in a parish and at a small liberal arts college in South Bend, Indiana.
He began the process of laicization in 1999. What the Body Wants is his poem about leaving the Catholic priesthood. Enjoy more of Jim’s poetry in Remember: New and Selected Poems
