Dance With Me

                     

Dance With Me

There I stood, waiting for the express
While pondering ways to renew
my flagging spirit, which struggled to climb
life's mounting challenges, when I saw you, serene,
your hands moving in the air, a kind of dance --
the glorious joy on your face making you rich.

Gazing around, I noticed the world's colors were rich.
In each person I sensed the soul's desire to express, 
to enter into the dance.
I felt that I could summon the energy to renew
and make myself serene
like an arbor trellis with those roses that climb.

To reach far, to stretch toward goals that require I climb --
this makes life worthwhile, and I feel rich.
In these moments, my heart beats serene.
I vibrate with life and tremble to express,
to evolve, to embrace impermanence and thus renew
life's eternal dance.

So, which steps will we choose to dance?
Will it be the hustle, the two-step, the fandango climb?
Or maybe a slow waltz, to allow our breathing to renew
while rhythmically moving to the beat, slow and rich.
Perhaps we will lean in to share a kiss, to express
what tantalizes us as we attempt to appear serene.

We might do this under the silver light of the moon, serene
in the movement of the dance
and the people watching -- their murmurs will express
how desire steeps, distills, intensifies, like the climb
of mercury trapped in a glass tube, the red rich
as blood, like the lungs give oxygen to renew.

And after we untwine ourselves, we turn within to renew
the relationship with the One who never leaves, the serene
companion who understands money does not make one rich;
nor does having it guarantee an invitation to the dance
and that life is often one painful, slogging climb
to an illusory summit that cannot contain all we express.

Form and emptiness express all that is, a serene

invitation to renew your energy and dance with life.

Free from need to delve or climb, rich beyond measure.

-Kathryn Harper  

Sara Bareilles, Salt Then Sour Then Sweet (Lyrics)

Give me the light years
But I want the dark ones, too
Grief is the singer in my band
She's a passenger van
And a shortcut straight to the truth

Learn from the nightshades
They grow in the darkest places
Had we not been stung so many times
Would we ever have arrived
At this heaven on Earth that I don't wanna waste

Pick a lucky penny up
And I'll marry you for your money, love

So keep the Novocain out of my wisdom teeth
Want to feel it all
Salt then sour then sweet
Want to kiss you and write love's name on my crumbling walls
Lay them at your feet with the rest of me
Salt then sour then sweet

Come to the porch, love
Look up at the perfect sky
Holding the sun and the moon and the thundering June
While she teaches the birds and the rain how to fly

I don't need perfect
I just want to touch what's true
I want to cherish the trying
And the living and dying
Make big mistakes the way kind people do

Pick a lucky penny up
And I'll marry you for your money, love

So keep the Novocain out of my wisdom teeth
Want to feel it all
Salt then sour then sweet
Want to kiss you and write love's name on my crumbling walls
Lay them at your feet with the rest of me
Nothing more I need
Nothing more I need
Life is lovably
Salt then sour then sweet

So sweet
So sweet
So sweet
Life is lovably
So sweet, so sweet
So sweet

In Your Bones

A blessing, a wish, and a prayer for you.