Dancing the Sky

You dance the grasses as grass shifts,
becoming the darkness,
and you dance the red fire,
a lone warrior backlit in flame—
you are the air through which
the sky’s brilliant monarchs dart,
and you the river, banks dressed
in snow, the slow grace of water
which flows, and flows on,
and yet remains the same.
Each of you dancing your path
of stars upward—this is where
the body gathers around its own
heartbeat, its rhythms aligned
with creation, which does not
fade or falter but stays, and those
whose hearts dance themselves
become the sound that goes on.

Karenne Wood
(Monacan)