Malvina Reynolds: Song Lyrics and Poems  



Folkdancer

Notes: by Malvina Reynolds; previously unpublished.


Dance with me, dance with me,
I cannot sit here still.
The music lifts me with its own will
Like two strong arms, and I am something new,
We two are something neither was before,
Embodied music, free and strong and certain,
Radiantly bright, and clothed in measured laughter.

Dance with me, dance with me,
The music has commanded,
And willingly I rise and take my place.
I know the turns, the accent,
When to bend, and pause, and stamp and spin,
The mad gallop moving smartly to conclusion,
The slide, the weaving step.
My body is not mine, it is the song's,
It answers every note in gay submission,
And I am something new, and we are all
All one new thing, a rhythmic entity,
Of which I, also, am a fitting part.

Problems and hesitations,
The cocoon of puzzled thought drops from me
With the first note, and I am clothed in bright fluid raiment
And moving light.
I do not know my partner but as a happy face,
A force set truly, pattern of dynamics,
Part as I am of this whole melody.
I know him not, and yet I know him well,
For we're compounded, for this special moment,
Of one stuff--music only.
And we are free, and all of us are free
Of isolation, doubt, and gravity.


*                 *                 *                 *                *

/MALVINA/mrp019.htm
This page copyright 2006 by Charles H. Smith and Nancy Schimmel. All rights reserved.

Return to Poetry Menu
Return to Home