It’s muscle memory in play
that rules our movement through stretched days,
habitual practice, gravity,
the centre of our core response,
as limbs explore this living space.
Positions held, a stance recalled,
en pointe, with confidence maintained
means tendu, plié, arabesque,
all taken in their stride on stage.
Sustained community, the corps,
full cast support for prima rôles,
the art of rehearsal, group share,
is company on common ground –
note sound in harmony resolved,
as dancer’s feet relate, surround,
not hidebound synchronicity.
Techniques of ballet, village life,
conjoin, if fellowship to be –
not lonely pirouetting souls,
the sole preserve of leader, chief,
a dancing master at its worst,
but measured steps of all combined,
so freedom found, together bound.
and not those wounds, caused master class.
Stephen Kingsnorth (Cambridge M.A., English & Religious Studies), retired to Wales, UK, from ministry in the Methodist Church due to Parkinson’s Disease, has had pieces curated and published by on-line poetry sites, printed journals and anthologies, including Poetry Potion. He has, like so many, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. His blog is at https://poetrykingsnorth.wordpress.com