It’s hard to play with tears,
Streaming down your face.
Two rivers of salt, soaking,
Dripping, shining on soft wood.
The song, the song, echoing,
Echoing in my ears, in my heart
In my hands, and head, and soul.
Playing, playing blind with tears,
Hot, wet tears, my heart bursting,
With love, with pain, with song,
For the departing…
…a last song.
Archive for December, 2007
It’s hard to play with tears
Sunday, December 30th, 2007Dancing Generations
Monday, December 10th, 2007
When did dancing become something the adults did? You can’t bring kids to a hip-hop club, you’d be turned away at the door! But a contra dance? They are warmly welcomed.
Where dance has cultural importance, the whole family goes dancing. Grandpa, dad, mom, the kids, and even the babies. The kids are good dancers before they hit 12.
Somehow, we started this weird concept of dance “clubs” where children aren’t allowed. They grow up not dancing, and then dancing dies out of the culture when they grow up.
Do your kids a favor, and bring them dancing from the time they can barely walk. They might not be dancing when they turn 14, but you better believe they’ll remember it when they dance with their sweetheart under a warm summer moon.
Never forget the importance of touch. Brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and grandparents and grandchildren and neighbors and visitors and guests and the occasional international transfer student all dancing together; that is dance, and it is very wonderfully human.
Do it in remembrance of the generations before you who created your culture, and brought your family and you into this world.
Dance!
First Snow
Monday, December 3rd, 2007
We had our very first sticking snow of the season! This was a cause worth celebrating, which would explain why the roads were unsalted, trackless expanses of ice.
These pictures were taken on my way home from work (yesterday — a Sunday!) before the snow started. The light was a stupendous warm snow glow, which is somewhat reflected in the pictures.