Best Dance Music Poems
Voice: Jason Williams
***
I danced!
Whirling air around me, particles of sundust
in tornadoes and hurricanes following me in awe
I danced.
Each night I wake and feel my legs
The ones that once carried me and jumped so high
The ones that took me away from a world I didn't want to be in
Creating a dream,
I danced.
The music colouring a world with brushes and pencils
With moves and muscle, practice and pirouette
A world I thought no one could take away
I danced.
When my eyes are closed I dance
My mind paints my body whole and healed
A unicorn, a world of faeries, a galloping horse
A world of dreams, veiled and away from hurt
I live again
I live
I don't dance anymore
But I write. My words, my lines, they carry me now
My legs are useless, my arms and emotions
Carry me
So....
I dance again, in words
I dance.
***
1st Place in contest: Practiced Passion
Sponsor: Frank Herrera
November 9, 2016
I hear much joy in the music,
View elation in the dance
Feel happiness in the laughter,
Soulful spirit in poetic romance.
I feel love in the language
Swelling in my heart.
Reverence for God and Goddess
In beloved families far apart.
I love the customs and the people
As they celebrate each day
Living life to the fullest
In their honor I wish to pray
That I may learn to be as humble
As loving and as kind,
To be blessed by elder wisdom
In every senior that I find.
This is a gift to give my children
To open their sleepy little eyes.
To see the value in rejoicing,
To reach for stars up in the skies.
When they learn this knowledge
To listen well to the sages,
They will know of sacred secrets
Handed down through the ages.
© 2014 Connie Marcum Wong
Every day with practice in tights and leotard
Her spring cherry lips sprout in the imprint of joy
A mind without fear...she was born to dance
A girl who can perform classical ballet,
long before she has learned to spell her own name
As a swan in graceful movements,
engulfed in the magic of movement and light
The emotions are pulled through her skin
with a flowing inspiration
exactly on the right technique
The eagerness, the curiosity and the wonder
in every tiny step
In a romantic white tutu with red sequins
Exquisite movements and the choreography divine
She could have been the swan princess in the ballet
Swan Lake with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
The wings of a bird that is still too young
the fire is burning in her future dreams
She is a groovy, hippy girl.
She loves that funky, trippy beat.
It is her hippy, trippy world!
She is a groovy, hippy girl.
She dances funky, hippy twirls,
and when she sits, she taps her feet.
She is a groovy, hippy girl.
She loves that funky, trippy beat.
1/12/2022
Rain
Pouring
Quickly downward
Spreading quickly
The wind is blowing music to the leaves
One swift move tempting
sunburned curls to find
a whole new place
across her face
around vanilla shoulders
dress clings to hips
purple arranged on pouting lips,
kohl around almond eyes
calculating,
investigating lustful look
~~~~~~~~
twirl, swirl,
oh yes girl
High heels tango, abrazo,
hand on back, barrida
full stop... freno
breathless hunger
Tango. Castigada
***
May 15, 2017
Copyright © Darren White
Sang like a whippoorwill, up high on a hill
Played trumpet like Satchmo, with panache and skill
To watch that man tap-dance, gave even Gregory Hines a thrill
As Ella Fitzgerald told us, 'Sammy's pure talent' distilled
November 07, 2019
Your Favorite Artist Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Chantelle Anne Cooke
______________________________________________
Notes:
1. See 'The Birth of the Blues,' (movie) c. 1955, b & w,
to view Sammy's exceptional singing, trumpet
playing, and tap-dancing ability. (4:39 clip)
2 See 'Tap,' (movie clip) 1981, to view Gregory Hines,
a remarkable tapper himself, in awe of Sammy's
(and his friends') tap-dancing.
3 See clip of 'Ed Sullivan Show,' 1964, (3 minutes,
27 seconds) to see Ella introduce Sammy as 'pure
talent,' and then to view their incredible jazz singing.
I sat in awe and watched them
make the stage a world,
where everything,
everything
could happen.
The music took me away from
where I was sitting.
Drifting me on invisible lines.
And I dreamt.
I dreamt.
Their hair in braids,
their colourful clothes,
their graciousness.
A jump a deer, or swan.
Arms a house to live in.
Embracing all the world from
love to death and beyond.
And I danced, I danced,
my music danced in my head,
my words, sung on paper,
were spoken on stage.
Lived a life other than ink
or syllables.
I lived there.
I bowed for my imaginary public.
My mind a stage,
all dancers,
all words,
all the music.
This dream kept me alive.
This dream makes me a poet
who sees colours and music
in words, and enjoys
just that.
***
October 31, 2016
Sway, sway so soft
Back and forth swaying
near motionless
holding on so tight
blending, merging
melting together
rocking your baby doll
to sweet silver blue...
Now gliding, waltzing
Cajun waltzing
Jolie Blon waltzing
so smooth, so elegant
so easy and tuned in like
skating on ice...
Slow-shag shuffle
Beach sounds on the juke box
barefoot on a sandy floor
Platters, Drifters, Temptations
Intricate, delicate movement
Shuffle to the seagull's call
to the warm gulf breeze
to the pounding rhythm of the sea...
Now shake it, shake a tail-feather
bend over let me see you
shake a tail feather
sweaty, salty, sexy shaking
C'mon baby shake it on down
shake it on down with me...
Last verse based on the song: 'Shake a Tail-Feather' by James & Bobby Purify
The room smells, wall paper peeled,
reveals children's scribbles—
small smiles, suns, pink trees
Windows high with curious robins on sills
wind moans through cracks
sun dances branches on the walls
A man pounces the piano with gusto
five, six, seven, eight!
I ply and jump, forget about him
But in the background, invisible, one
terrifying presence pairs with old grandeur
j'ai peur
Late that night my violin
sang its song near perfection—
sharp, shrill
***
July 22, 2017
Copyright © Darren White
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You turn and risk two smiling eyes my way as I walk in..
how pretty you look sitting upright in that little bed.
Quietly whisper, how well your bridal gown now would fit,
imagining our dream wedding dance in your fever'd head.
And do you still hear the sweet music of the love we made,
in a different room, full of flowers, where children bloomed?
Those memories savored now, where you, my heart's saviour laid,
the shadows drowned by your brilliant glow in musky perfume.
Tired nurses and CNA's steal a glance behind misty glasses,
at a star'y eyed groom longing to see his bride in prime.
Unafraid of death's grasp, I pulled away your tear-filled mask,
dared kiss two lips in precious life that hugged me one more time.
If loving you proved lethal, or a lingering disease,
then let it linger. I need no cure for what's shared within.
Warm hands and laughing eyes so cherished., I'm now loath to leave..
so please stay here with me, sharing in all that love was meant.
The memory, of old, returns again
and tiptoes in like summer rain.....
If I close my eyes, I can feel the night
that wraps me close, beneath the stars
There were sounds of laughter all around
And crowds were milling all about
A saxophone was softly speaking
and Sinatra's voice was crooning, ...pleasing
For with a midnight tolling near
One by one, they drifted home...
Just a few of us, to dance the floor
All sense of time had halted course...
With shoes kicked off, and jackets hung
We couldn't bear the evening's end
Cheek to cheek with you that night
The last sweet dance would soon begin
The music stopped, but we did not
We couldn't break our tight embrace
We couldn't tear ourselves apart
And while we danced in pale moonlight
Our eyes were closed, you kissed my face
This was our own, enchanted place
You held me close, we danced alone
The night was ours to keep....our own
Though not a sound at all we heard
The lonely saxophone droned a tune
The record of Old Blue Eyes crooned
The music had no end
lost in deep snow drifts
inside we are safe and warm
dancing by firelight
the stars are twinkling
outside the snow still falling
music softly plays
GYPSY TANGO
The Gypsy Tango roils his Portuguese blood
Fires of passion leap into his brown eyes.
He asks, pulling at his collar, knees in bend,
“What were you listening to…”
Ah...caught him in vulnerable freeze.
A kaleidoscopic spin of a voluptuous skirt,
Hypnotic swirl of hair and beads -
The music stoked by a cyclonic pulse.
I reel in my most prized faithful husband.
The years keep him coming back
To the same fishing spot -
This is no sordid affair...
It is the cave of wonders.
May we never escape its chase
He’s got the hots for his Hungarian bride.
A szerelem egyszeruen csak szerelem. Ez egy leírhatatlan érzés.*
7/19/2019
*Love is just love. It can never be explained.
Why did dancing go out of style
I don’t think it’ll be back for a while
Why did rap music become a thing
It’s like listening to week-old refried chicken wings
And when did art degenerate into indoctrination
It speaks to the dumbing down of this nation
Summing things up, I’d say ~
Our culture’s been left to hyenas and vultures