Poem: A Deeper Existence

Quibell explained her approach to poetry to Spirituality & Health:

God, to me, never felt like a single, fatherly entity in the sky. Perhaps, the concept began that way, but it didn’t stick for very long. I grew up in the Catholic tradition, and would close my eyes a lot during mass on Sundays. Someone would usually nudge me thinking I was falling asleep, but I wasn’t. I was simply trying to tune in to some mysterious, holy presence that seemed to pervade everything, and never felt far away.

It wasn’t long before I stumbled upon the poetry and writing of the mystics, and fell in love. 

There was a casual intimacy with which they spoke to God, and with which God spoke to them. And when I read the exchange, I felt as if their words were slowly inscribed onto the walls of my heart. I wondered if they had been there as etchings all along—simply needing to be more deeply carved, noticed, and cared for. 

I began writing poetry—around the age of five but much more seriously in my teens—because I couldn’t not. It became my way of fostering a complex and often tumultuous relationship to some Voice within me. The V is capitalized here because it felt other-worldly and undeniably sacred.