Edgar Degas, Ballet Scene
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.
For many people around the world, December is a time of celebration. And for many, celebration means—among other things, dance. They may celebrate by participating in a dance (a folk dance or “social dancing,” or by attending a ballet or a dance competition. Dance is generally a joyful experience. Here is a poem about dance.
I once asked you to my high school homecoming
dance
held in a crepe-papered gym, glistening silver
ball
pulsing starlight from the ceiling, and
frosted soda pop
between rock and roll frenzy.
So young, dressed in crinoline-buoyed black
velvet and pearls,
I would dance with you, tall with thick dark
hair
1n your striped suit - a stranger playing the
part
of a dazzling college man as my date.
Not the uncle who knew me before me
or had kids of his own, you almost said yes
to this make-believe moment when
we would have danced and laughed with our
secret,
while everyone wondered who was
that knight in shining armor.
~ Susan T. Moss
From Susan’s book, Keep Moving til the Music Stops, a chapbook published by Lily Pool/Swamp Press (2006).
Dance was the theme of the Poetry Challenge in July 2009. You can read the winning poems by bmm and David Roth, and the example poem by Gertrude Rubin at https://wildamorris.blogspot.com/2009/07/?m=0.
Links to some other dance poems on line:
Paul Engle, “Dancer: Four Poems,” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=34173.
Theodore Roethke, “The Dance,” www.theatlantic.com/doc/195211/dance-poem).
St. Augustine, “I Praise the Dance,” https://syriology.com/2018/09/07/i-praise-the-dance/ and numerous other websites.
Lewis Carroll, “The Lobster Quadrille,” from Alice in Wonderland, in context, https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/1/alices-adventures-in-wonderland/20/chapter-x-the-lobster-quadrille/.
Mary Mapes Dodge, “The Minuet,” https://sharpgiving.com/101famouspoems/poems/original/074Dodge.html.
Susan T. Moss is the author of a full-length book, “Mapping a Life”, and two chapbooks, In From the Dark and Keep Moving ‘til the Music Stops. She is president of the Illinois State Poetry Society and an active participant in Poets & Patrons, The Poets’ Club of Chicago, and the P2 Collective. Her work has appeared in Vermont Literary Review, Afterhours, The Kref, Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Calendar, and other places. She had benefited from a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, and has received two Illinois Humanities Fellowships. A former English teacher, she is a graduate of Middlebury College, Bread Loaf School of English.
The December Challenge:
The challenge for this month is a poem related to dnce. Your poem may be serious or humorous. December in your poem may be metaphoric, or literal. Use your imagination! Note that the blog format does not accommodate shaped poems or long lines; if they are used, they have to be broken in two, with the second part indented (as in the poem “Lilith,” one of the May 2018 winners), or the post has to use small print.
1-Title your poem unless it is in a form that discourages titles.
2-Single-space.
3-Put your name, a brief third-person bio, and your email address in that order under your poem. If the poem has been previously published, please put the publication data under the poem also.
4-Please keep the poem on the left margin (standard 1” margin). Do not put any part of your submission on a colored background. Do not use a fancy font and do not use a header or footer.
5-You may submit a published poem if you retain copyright, but please include publication data. This applies to poems published in books, journals, newspapers, or on the Internet. Poems already used on this blog are not eligible to win, but the poets may submit a different poem, unless the poet has been a winner the last three months.
6-The deadline is December 15. Poems submitted after the deadline will not be considered. There is no charge to enter, so there are no monetary rewards; however, winners are published on this blog. Please don’t stray too far from “family-friendly” language (some children and teens read this blog).
7- No simultaneous submissions of previously unpublished poems, please. You should know by the end of the month whether or not your poem will be published.
8-The poet retains copyright on each poem. If a previously unpublished poem wins and is published elsewhere later, please give credit to this blog. I do not register copyright with the US copyright office, but by US law, the copyright belongs to the writer unless the writer assigns it to someone else.
9-Decision of the judge or judges is final.
10-If the same poet wins three months in a row (which has not happened thus far), he or she will be asked not to submit the following two months.
How to Submit Your Poem:
1-Send one poem only to wildamorris4[at]gmail[dot]com (substitute the @ sign for “at” and a . for “dot”). The poem must respond in some way to the specific challenge for the month.
2-Put “December Poetry Challenge Submission” FOLLOWED BY YOUR NAME in the subject line of your email. Include a brief bio that can be printed with your poem if you are a winner this month.
3-Submission of a poem gives permission for the poem to be posted on the blog if it is a winner, so be sure that you put your name (exactly as you would like it to appear if you do win) at the end of the poem.
4-Poems may be pasted into an email or sent as an attachment or both (Doc, Docx, rich text or plain text; no pdf files, please). Please do not indent the poem or center it on the page. It helps if you submit the poem in the format used on the blog (Title and poem left-justified; title in bold (not all capital letters); your name at the bottom of the poem). 6-Also, please do not use multiple spaces instead of commas in the middle of lines. I have no problem with poets using that technique (I sometimes do it myself). However, I have difficulty getting the blog to accept and maintain extra spaces.
Poems shorter than 40 lines are generally preferred but longer poems will be considered.
© Wilda Morris
