Observations and Insights
on the Nature of Things
This monthly column features brief essays, poems, poetic micro essays and photography by Eve West Bessier, Poet Laureate Emerita of Silver City and Grant County, New Mexico. Look for a new post every first Friday.
Language Moves Through My Life Like a Dance
Inspired by Rita Dove
Poet Laureate Emerita of the United States
Language moves through my life
like a dance.
Not always with elegance and poise.
Often with inelegant sound and fury.
With bleeding knees, stunted dreams.
With a heart filled with clawing
alliterations. Old crows cackling
their raucous caws.
At times, I find words and meaning
entangled in an intimate
Argentine tango.
Legs entwined,
chests leaning in to touch
flushed cheeks and brush
against your tears
mixed with my own,
the way words allow us
to own ourselves
at the roots of meaning.
Sometimes a Viennese waltz
careens me around and around,
no words to capture
such crazed elation,
yet words are revealed.
Today, language moves
like a slow rumba in the arms
of long memory,
filled with a sweet
melancholy passion
invisible to the world.
Closely held,
protected from scrutiny,
smoothly caressing
the ground
with the naked soles
of my feet.
Photo credit: Stock
