WALTZING

Waltzing seems to go with lovers, but why?
A twosome in love implies a two-beat cadence,
An alternating rhythm, lightly laden,
Lilting back and forth to signify

The heavenly mutuality of soul
And body, of Chaucer’s “oulde daunce”,
Of fervent offering and glad response,
Dyadic, binary, a dual whole.

Three-quarter time inserts that extra pulse
Beyond the lovers’ two, the third connecting
To exterior reality, annexing
A growing cosmos, earth and heaven exulting.

The third beat is creation; call it, maybe,
Bliss or bond or life or God or baby?

(147, March 7, 1994)

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