Most of the Poets & Storytellers United have been watching the Winter Olympics. I have not, but I know the sort of eye candy that prompted this week's call for poems about dancing. I started writing a normal rhymed poem and then thought that this poem worked better with consonance rather than full rhymes...
They make it look so easy.
They're having so much fun.
We never see the hours
Of practice they put in.
Was it a planned and practiced move
Or a disastrous fall?
They're young! They're cute! They always grin!
We never can quite tell!
Whatever happened in real life,
They never let it show.
Defining grace in motion is
All they are paid to do.
For all our lives, and theirs, in our minds
They remain nineteen.
They go on to have private lives;
Nobody knows them, then.
Twirl on, the fairest of the land;
Your dances freeze in time.
Next year there will be different girls;
The dance will be the same.
1. Photo of Dorothy Hamill from Vogue
2. Photo of Tara Lipinski from facebook.com
3. Photo of Nancy Kerrigan from ebay.com
4. Photo of Michelle Kwan from britannica.com
5. Photo of Debi Thomas from alamy.com
Yes they show grace and ease I love how you say "Your dances freeze in time." Indeed it's that visible part of them that goes on in memory
ReplyDeleteOne would think you HAD been watching the winter Olympics, you've got it so right!
ReplyDeleteWell, I did watch the video clip at P&SU. It's lovely. She does all the most difficult moves over and over, more than the judges even require, and looks as if she could go on all day.
DeleteYes, it is a meat grinder sport.
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting, poets all! Yes, I think all spectator sports inevitably become meat grinders. We want to see the best. Who are the best changes every year.
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy watching the skaters when a chance is offered. I never make a particular effort to watch :-)
The amount of discipline and dedication needed to perform at this level is mind-blowing.
ReplyDeleteIndeed it is! Are you the one I have to thank for that video at P&SU? Dang that girl's good. Michelle Kwan all over again.
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