Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Tuesday Poem: Will you dance with me

Will you dance with me
hold my hands lightly
as we learn to stand together,
learn to breathe and walk
as though we were doing it
the first time

Will you dance with me
work out each new step
laugh at our mistakes
find out how by pushing
at the spaces between us
we can find balance

Will you dance with me
through the long night
as violins fade
to something more real
as light cracks the sky
and dark becomes dawn

Dance with me when we’re at the beach.
Dance with me in front of family.
Dance with me and my friends.
Dance with me in the cobbled streets of Valparaiso,
wearing kimono in Tokushima, walking the Great Wall
at Badaling,
in Paris and in London

then come to dance with me at home.

Dance with me
again and again
dance through the tight places,
the hard places, the forbidden places
the soft places, the places
where we’ll find each other

Will you dance with me
this first dance til the last dance
the many dances in between,

will you dance with me.

This was the poem I read to Mark just before we stepped out for our first wedding dance, a tango.