Thursday, July 21, 2005

 
The Dancer

If I had it my way I would be a painter; a painter who had just bathed in color and then took to a stage to dance against a background of white, having a dialogue with the music, finding out what it is the sound was searching for and figuring out whether my soul was searching for the same thing.

If I had it my way, I would be a poet; a poet whose blood was his ink and whose feelings were crying to be freed from his mortal body and who, driven by this desire for freedom, was dancing in the minds of those who beheld him so that the blood would course through his veins and scream silently till the need for freedom and the lamentable lack of it was so apparent that the beholder would never forget the poetry.

If I had it my way, I would be a runner; a runner running free and wild, hair flowing behind him, the whole body leaning ever so slightly forward, arms, legs, and body one in a rhythm so poetic that the animals would witness and recognize the dance that had been created by the lord – the dance that is understood only by those who dance this dance of the eternally united soul, the dance of the animal born free.

If I had it my way, I would be a leaf on a sapling standing six inches tall; a leaf just old enough to flutter in the wind and giggle with glee as the kiss of the lord tickled its being, and young enough to dance without a care that it was but a tiny, unspectacular speck on a small struggling sapling which was far from being a mighty tree that might withstand the forces of the world.

Yes, if I had my way, I would be a dancer; I would dance every which way, in every which season, in any which memory, to any which music, just to let the world know that I was alive and that I knew what it meant to be alive. Yes, I am an artist and a poet and an animal and a leaf... and yes, every form of me loves to dance.
posted by Sanjay Maya 5:31 AM