| Ghostly Voices Calling Us to Dance
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Isabelle5
| Going forward with no shoes, | 1 |
stepping over puddles left by dew. | 2 |
Wearing an old shirt that my husband | 3 |
used to wear, now wrapped around me | 4 |
like a prayer shawl. | 5 |
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Walking into the wind without a compass | 6 |
to carry me due North to some new place | 7 |
where barefoot women learn to dance | 8 |
in circles round a fire. | 9 |
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Stepping over coals to be there by | 10 |
the time the sun goes down. | 11 |
Fingernails may break but I’ll claw my way | 12 |
until the hill is taken. | 13 |
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Into the sun without a shield | 14 |
to hold the light at bay, | 15 |
I hear the music in my head, | 16 |
led by ancestral voices | 17 |
to a place where barefoot women | 18 |
learn to dance to steady drum beats. | 19 |
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Making the journey as my mothers did, | 20 |
without a map to mark our way back home, | 21 |
we travel on the rhythm of our veins, | 22 |
beating time with bare feet, | 23 |
teaching our daughters of | 24 |
dreaming and the dance. | 25 |
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10 Aug 05 |
Rated 9.5 (9.5) by 2 users.
Active (2): 9, 10
Inactive (2): 9, 10
(define the words in this poem)
(248 more poems by this author)
(1 user considers this poem a favorite)
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Comments:
Nice, very nice.
I would prefer a title more along the lines of 'ancestral voices' but the poem is wonderful.
Sam
— unknown
Yes, that title is giving me trouble. I changed it again but it's still not exactly right.
— Isabelle5
La danse macabre?
Good story telling. I like your choice of words.
— Meep
It's not a danse macabre. More the idea of the African Women's tents, where women go when they bleed, where the young girls go for their secret training, etc. That mystical information mothers pass on to their daughters. I like the idea of the mystery of it all and often wish we still had something like that today to make young women aware of their worth beyond pretty.
— Isabelle5
comma after break iin 12
This is SPECTACULAR!!!!!!! 10 10 10 10 10
FAV
— themolly
Comma after break in 12? But is the connector so I don't need a comma. I love that you like this! Thanks, Everyone!
— Isabelle5
without it the rhythm is off
But still a 10
— themolly
I should have known this was you. It is your voice.
Will get back to you re email...nasty storm happening with chance of tornadoes.
Sam
— unknown
I wish my voice matched my face!!!
— Isabelle5
Wait, I got that backwards. I wish my face matched my poetic voice lol
— Isabelle5
Bravo
i love it!
just live it
— unknown
I think the word sunglasses kinda shocked me out of the wonderful non-modern feel of this
— unknown
You know, you're right about the sunglasses. I changed it to shield, which is a good strong word to use here, as it can refer to more than one thing.
Thanks for that!
— Isabelle5
good lord you've written a lot of "poems"
So i'm going to stop at this "one", whatever that means.
Ok, L1.
Dew does not condense, unless youre one of those Noah's Ark affirming mother F'ers.
There's no such thing as a prayer shawl unless you like Mohammed, which you don't.
Pick a world view and go with it, jesus nail lady.
What's that? Mohammed has his good points? Ok, i stand corrected.
wind has noting to do with the electro-magnetic attraction of a compass needle. LEARN THINGS!!!
Methinks, given your understanding of time, science, space, and the Oxford comma, L6-L9 should just say "NIGGERS!!!!!"
Then the rest of the poem should say.
"I mean slaves. I would never say the word 'niggers'. Not while children were present. Napoleon fought with an entirely white army. Wallace, too. The sun is hot and where God lives....
i've dug myself into a deep enough hole. Worms!! I SUMMON THEE. Exist! and slake the thirst of men unworthy of poetry. But please, allow me to go churn butter. my poems need grease, and i'm a frictional mother trucker.
Balls
fin.
That is the poem you wrote, Isabelle5. Own to it.
— yeesher
Really good with a strong matriarchal undertow,this conveys dark and mysterious traditions through the rythmn of dance which is enhanced by the musical rythmn of your poem.
— larrylark
this one smells funky
rafterman
— unknown
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