Poem for Dancers in Hard Times

Move.

Because clouds pour over the mountains in the morning

and sea currents draw them back at noon.

Move.

Because leopard sharks whip the waters all around as

you speed on the train beneath the great bay.

Move.

Because the choreography of cells and blood and

breath never ceases as you walk the long blocks.

Move.

Because the three sisters spin in their velvet arc each

night above your dreaming brain.

Move.

Because this moment creatures of every kind are

emerging and expiring from the earth.

Move.

Because the earth itself is moving in its endless circle dance

around the sun, and time is moving,

and space, the very medium of movement,

is moving outward in its infinite hunger,

flinging the stars into new frontiers.

This article appeared in the March 2010 issue of In Dance.