Poem: 'For a Dancer'

At the tech rehearsal for yesterday's performance

At Montclair State University yesterday, I had the honor of helping present a collaboration of dance, music and poetry as part of the "Intonation" program coordinated by Arts by the People (thank you, Paul Rabinowitz and Michelle Ortega!) and MSU (thank you, Maxine Steinman!).

According to the arts organization, "The Intonation project is a collaboration between local poets, students of musical composition from Montclair State University, as well as dancers and choreographers from MSU. Our goal is to foster a deeper understanding of culture, artistic process, and humanity through collaboration and the exploration of universal themes. Six poets will participate in two writing workshops with the dancers and composers to create new work. The new works will be performed on stage at MSU’s theater."

I collaborated with the talented musician, Glen Fitting, and the ultra-talented dancer and choreographer, Jada Coughlin, on a performance piece that I will post here when available. The words were a combination of a poem I began, then combined with one of Jada's own finished poems to explore art as a form of freedom and redemption. The collaborative poem:

For a Dancer

I am a blank canvas burning with flames,

a blank palette at my feet.

My face covered,

my mind wrapped in barbed wire,

unsure of how to start,

trying to make something out of nothing.

 

The only thing I know for sure

is the beating of my restless heart.

It bleeds like an open wound

through the canvas

as I begin to paint a melody.

—

I begin to bleed a melody

to the beating of my heart.

At first, brushes slip from my hand,

leaving the canvas untouched.

I soak in the pain with my palm,

feeling bound by self-doubt,

confounded by the expectations

of what’s considered art.

Until I trust what I know,

and I know what I feel.

I tell my soul to trust my heart.

—

Then music swells from deep within,

as I begin to trust my heart.

My dance creates color from movement,

texture with my hands,

melody from thin air.

 

You can't catch me when I dance.

What you can't catch, you can't define.

What you can't define, you can't judge.

What you can't judge, you can't doubt.

What you can't doubt, you can't reject.

See my face as I dance.

See my arms, my hands.

Look into my heart.

Watch me confront my fears,

spin melody into gold,

create freedom with my feet.

 

This is my canvas.

Not the one you first believed.

I confound you with my magic,

with my movement, my release.

My art is my redemption.

My dance, my masterpiece.