Dancing is the poetry of the foot. ~John Dryden

For me, dancing has always been a form of poetry, as I would like to think. "Poetry In Motion". I will confess that I have two favorite dancers that I admire and follow on YouTube: The first is a ballroom couple, Arunas Bizokas & Katusha Demidova. The second is an individual, Derek Hough from Dancing With The Stars.

Speaking of poetry, until I turned 16, I regarded poetry as a foreign language that was a waste of time because it was so difficult to understand. Events in my teenage years, incuding the love for music, romance and dance made me aware of two languages which later I would fully understand when I read Northrop Frye's discussion in his book Anatomy Of Criticism about discursive verses poetic in language which extends into life in general. It was the 1974 vesion of the movie The Great Gatsby, when I was then 19, which made me aware that music, dance and romance can create a desire for a level of life that only the heart can understand. To find someone who understands this and is in his or her DNA is ......... heavenly fate?? Over the years I have written much poetry and collected much as well, most now lost in an old computer that broke down and no backup, and no parts available to be repaired.

Unfortunately I must also confess that I have kinda become a discerner of poetry, and in my mind I do have a bad habit of rating what appears to be poetry as average, good, or great. For me poetry must still have meter and rhyme. Sorry for those who do not agree; I am still "old school". Meter and rhyme still makes the poem "memorable", that is worth remembering, even as simple as the following:

Roses are red, this is your Fred

Violets are blue, hey Ginger - I love YOU!

As I say,

if there ain't no rhyme,

there ain't no chime.

Just a closing thought:

It was Shanna LaFleur who said:

It takes an athlete to dance, but an artist to be a dancer.

And it was Paula Abdul on SYTYCD who said:

It takes an athlete to dance, but a poet to be a dancer.

Paula's misquotation does give us something to think about.

Have you written a poem lately?