Poems
TANGO IS MY PRACTICE
All were nakedly displayed last night:
Gain and loss;
Praise and blame;
Invitation and rejection.
Confidence and insecurity
Made yet another public appearance.
New steps were being worked on:
Compassion for those waiting;
Joy for those expanding the art;
Patience with myself and my partner;
Equanimity to let go of what I want -
To discover what already is.
Do not wait,
Do not hold yourself hostage to the future,
No need for another lesson, workshop or festival.
Do not be concerned that you cannot give more
Or are unable to meet your partner’s expectations.
Dance in the self-accepting present,
Dance as you are,
Dance now.
There is no other way.
{new}
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING
IN THE WORLD
It's not the instructor,
The couple who bumped you,
The visiting teachers,
Not the tango babe
Who just walked in.
It is not the music,
Or we'd be sitting-still with eyes closed;
It is not the movement,
Or we'd be mirror-dancing by ourselves.
Partners are the reason
We travel across the country, the ocean.
The person in your arms,
Is not the one who said no,
Hesitated,
Left after one song,
Abundant with advice;
Those are in the past,
In fact,
Required for you to be here.
Do not bring resentment from the long trip -
Your partner allows the journey to continue.
Accept the one you are with-
Even when alone.
{new}
TANGO OASIS
It takes more than two –
It takes a village.
I have gathered too many opinions,
About myself and others,
But over the years
They have softened.
Even those that I have difficulty with,
I come to value:
Their active presence
Allows me to indulge
In our common passion.
I am a glad if reluctant participant in this
Dancing, living being of professionals,
Devotees and vagabonds by the Bay.
{new}
MAY I HAVE THIS TANGO
May I lead your awareness
Into this moving moment?
May you feel safely naked
In the fold of my right arm.
May we drift on the music
Of the Rio de la Plata.
{new}
IN A TANGO WHIRL
A supple spine uncoils
A smooth spin
Around the calm axis.
With broad, horizontal shoulders
The elegant authority of confidence
Pivots,
Then strides away.
{new}
SPACE INVADERS
Tango as be-foreplay.
Chests in dynamic contact,
Not a passive lean.
My heart softly suggests
Through her breast,
A pivot, a pause shared -
A deaf conversation in movement.
{new}
VIRTUE OF BEING CHASED
Cheetahs do not breed well in captivity.
Females need to be chased for days
Before accepting the pursuing male –
Feminine preference as natural selection.
With bodily exhaustion comes mental release.
Planning, remembering, complaining,
Are slowed, are softened.
After a few days of nonstop tango,
Festivals provide fatigue
To quiet anxiety,
And relax control
The mind thinks
Must be maintained.
{new}
MUSIC BLURS THE YEARS
A tango-walking cliché,
An older man grasping youth,
Lean and lithe,
A beginner's smile,
With a laugh, is gone.
Attempts to retrieve her
And my younger nights
Vie with her need
To weave gracefully
Among somber-dressed men.
{new}
MOUNTAIN CAT
Lanky, tawny torso;
Mottled, muscular paws,
White belly sprawled
On cool gully bottom,
A beautiful bobcat,
Bored with our intrusion,
Wanders off patiently.
Above the drifts of fog
The sun sets crimson
Upon islands of oaks and bays
Within a sloping golden sea.
Soft cries drown out
Distant surf and coyote yelps,
Startling a first year’s fawn.
{new}
THE BEST TANGO I DID NOT HAVE
My boundaries dissolved
Along with defenses and desires.
The energy of that talent-saturated room
Passed through me without comment or filter-
To her in mutual motion.
I did less, I let go, until I was not there,
No one to interpret, be playful or dramatic.
The dance itself was the best of the festival
But the cessation of ego was
Simply, stunningly, ecstatic.
{tango}
TAKING YOUR MIND OFF THE ECONOMY
An invitation to tango,
A rhythmic threshold to magic.
After dancing the moment away,
Stumbling over the stares it brought,
Nearly-full beams descend upon a pair
Pressing up against a downtown wall.
Protests of cold hands go unheeded,
As I taste my salt on your lips.
On the night the Bay is lit by fire,
You arrive home safe
As heaven will allow.
{new}
NIGHT AT DRAKE'S
On this moon-less midnight,
The breaking surf luminescent
Like a black man's smile.
On this dark western shore
Of this north bound plate,
A fox paces from fire to fog.
As the tide waltzes in and
The cliff crashes down,
We dance in starlight
On sparkling sand.
{geomorphology}
AN AFFAIR BETWEEN CORTINAS
Stepping on that worn, wooden stage
A silent flirtation begins.
Expertise, beauty and youth
Have a compelling pull
On bodies in motion.
Let desires dance,
In dim lit rooms
To life's music.
{new}
SHE GIVES GOOD TANGO
With a coelacanth style,
Archaic, still cheek-to-cheek,
I lurk in the dark,
Mid-depths of dance.
With her light,
Affable awareness,
Alert quiescence,
Movement beyond
Fear or desire,
I caress her breath
Within my arms.
After a few practiced steps,
We become
Spontaneous.
{new}
THE MOMENT IS THE CHOREOGRAPHY
When the mind accepts
The timeless-present,
We hear its rhythm,
Our body cannot but move -
Extemporaneously.
Within the embrace
The loss of autonomy begins.
Do not become a better dancer,
Just be the dancing.
Surrender the ego,
Let tango have you.
{new}
VULNERABILITY + ABUNDANCE = COMPASSION
Partners in an effortless dharma dance,
A fractured heart allows another’s pain to enter;
A full heart allows the generosity to seep out.
Without a reference point of me or mine,
Freefall freedom, lost in the world completely,
Nothing to protect,
Everything to give:
A smile, wink, suspended judgment...
{new}
A QUIET TANGO
Be open in close embrace,
Empty.
Let the music,
Her energy,
Enter.
Allow stillness
To dance with you,
Kiss you.
Be this.
{new}
STORMS DO NOT MAKE THE SKY ANGRY
Middle age vanity slowly steps
Across the floor on rusty hinges,
Dressed as an undertaker,
Holding a wisp of feminine spring,
Mere slip of youth -
Sheer potential yet to be.
He can offer only experience,
From an exquisite and soiled past,
If only she will relax
Into spontaneous presence,
Into his fading vibrations -
For three or four tangos.
{new}
SHADOW DANCING
Jealousy, anger, fear, loneliness -
Parts of me that abhor recognition.
Welcome these shadow-selves by name -
It eases their temporary visit.
Off they go to their own little rooms,
One resides in the upper shoulders,
Another settles down in the stomach,
The others like the tense jaw, the weak knee.
They are disruptive guests,
Likely to stay up all night -
These harbingers of certain change.
Unfurl the mind and the body will follow.
{new}
BERLIN
Paw-feet explore
The steel-smooth floor
Like the breast of a new love,
Like the ripeness of a peach.
Waves of water-light dance on
Walls massive, muscular and ruin.
We move, breath in rhyme,
Towards a late summer evening
Along the river Spree.
{new}
BUENOS AIRES (Paris with Parrots)
Those green-winged car-alarms
Indulge in improvisational group flight,
Above a chaotic cityscape of Italians speaking Spanish,
Above dog shit and diesel smoke,
Above stately fading facades of San Telmo,
Above dark-bark trees that lean and entwine
Above plate glass, brick-slick streets of Palermo,
Above public displays of affection
As common as the corner lingerie shop.
(God, I love being in a Catholic country again,
Where like France and Italy they
Value the vestments of intimacy.)
After a fine meal, red in tooth and claw,
There will be a musical, welcoming space,
A fluid, emotional mosaic
To embrace.
{new}
ADDICTING AS MANGOS
In tangos and near tangos
You are gently held
Between my right hand and heart.
Once again passengers
In the exhaustive whirl
Of lightness and rhythm-
Partners in bliss.
{tango}
SCENT
Freckled thighs
Sheer sheathed
Sighs, cries,
And words softly spoken,
To unravel the self,
And blur our fleeting egos
is a risk - a quest.
{lingerie}