Dance memories

Plié, the knees bend,

a frog flexing to spring;

grand battement, the taut leg

flails as if to beat

chaff from the wheat;

attitude, Hermes brings

ambiguous messages

and moves dream-smoothly

yet with hidden strain

that breaks in sweat,

into arabesque that traces

swan-lines on vision’s stone

that the dancer, not seeing

herself, feels in the bone.

Coupé, the air is cut

out from under the foot,

grand jeté, glissade, grand jeté, glissade,

the joy of leaping, of moving by

leaps and bounds, of gliding

to leap, and gliding

to leap becomes, while it lasts,

heart pounding, breath hurting,

the deepest, the only joy.

Denise Levertov