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Buoy the population of the soul
Toward their destination before they drown
~ Robert Pinsky
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Friday, 14. June 2002

Dante Dancing - Jack Gilbert


I

When he dances of meeting Beatrice that first time, he is a youth,his body has no real language, and his heart understands nothing of what has started. Love like a summer rain after drought, like the thin cry of a read-tailed hawk, like an angel sinking its teeth into our throat. He has only beginner steps to tell of the sheen inside him.The boy Dante sees her first with the absolute love possible only when we are ignorant of each other,Arm across his face,he runs off. Years go by.

II

The next dance is about their meeting again. He does an enchainement around her. Beatrice's heavy hair is dark and long. She watches with the occhi dolci. His jumps are a man's jumps. His steps have become the moves of a dancer who understand the dance. A man who recognizes the body's greed.She is deep in her body's heart. He is splendid.She is lost and is lead away by the aunt.Her family is careful after that. She goes by in a carriage. He raises on his toes, port de bras, his eyes desperate. Then she is at an upstairs window of the palace. He dances his sadness brilliantly in the moonlight below on the empty piazza,concentrating. She moves the curtain a little to the side, and he is happy. It's a dream we all know, the perfection of love that is not real. There is a founatin behind him.

III It is a few years later and they are finally in his simple room. His long dance of afterward is a declaration of joy and of gratitude and devotion. She dances strangely, putting on her clothes. A delicate goodbye. Her soul is now free from that kind of love. He stands motionless, bewildered, watching her go, Then dances his grief wonderfully.

IV We see Dante as an old man. He is a dancer who can manage only the simple steps of the beginning. He dances the romance lost, the love that never was,and the great love missed because of dreaming. First position, entrechat, and the smallest jumps. The passionate quiet. The quieter and the strongest. The special sorrow of a happy, imperfect heart that finally knows well how to dance. But does not.




Big Book Of Poetry

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Resignation - Nikki Giovanni



I love you

because the Earth turns round the sun

because the North wind blows north

sometimes

because the Pope is Catholic

and most Rabbis Jewish

because winters flow into spring

and the air clears after a storm

because only my love for you

despite the charms of gravity

keeps me from falling off the Earth

into another dimension

I love you

because it is the natural order of things

I love you

like the habit I picked up in college

of sleeping through lectures

or saying I'm sorry

when I get stopped for speeding

because I drink a glass of water

in the morning

and chain-smoke cigarettes

all through the day

because I take my coffee Black

and my milk with chocolate

because you keep my feet warm

through my life a mess

I love you

because I don't want it

any other way

I am helpless

in m love for you

It makes me so happy

to hear you call my name

I am amazed you can resist

locking me in an echo chamber

where your voice reverberates

through the four walls

sending me into spasmatic ecstasy

I love you

because it's been so good

for so long

that if I didn't love you

I'd have to be born again

and that is not a theological statement

I am pitiful in my love for you

The Dells tell me Love

is so simple

the thought though of you

sends indescribably delicious multitudinous

thrills throughout and through-in my body

I love you

because no two snowflakes are alike

and it is possible if you stand tippy-toe

to walk between the raindrops

I love you

because I am afraid of the dark

and can't sleep in the light

because I rub my eyes

when I wake up in the morning

and find you there

because you with all your magic powers were

determined that

I should love you

because there was nothing for you but that

I would love you

I love you

because you made me

want to love you

more than I love my privacy

my freedom my commitments

and responsibilities

I love you `cause I changed my life

to love you

because you saw me one friday

afternoon and decided that I would

love you

I love you I love you I love you




Big Book Of Poetry

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Mr. Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan


Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me, I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to. Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me, In the jingle-jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Though I know that evenin's empire has returned into sand, Vanished from my hand, Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping. My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet, I have no one to meet And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming.

Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship, My senses have been stripped, my hands can't feel to grip, My toes too numb to step, wait only for my boot heels To be wanderin'. I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way, I promise to go under it.

Though you might hear laughin', spinnin', swingin' madly across the sun,

It's not aimed at anyone, it's just escapin' on the run And but for the sky there are no fences facin'. And if you hear vague traces of skippin' reels of rhyme To your tambourine in time, it's just a ragged clown behind I wouldn't pay it any mind, it's just a shadow you're Seeing' that he's chasing




Big Book Of Poetry

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