Saints and Dancers

1.

A body quickening the air above the stage 
Instills, with arms and legs, a pattern 
Flowing like an image echoed 
In a thousand transitory mirrors.

The quick pirouette 
Then slow 
And still 
The fingers’ delicate extension.

Then collapsing into motion, 
Circles breaking into circles, 
The body pulsing in and out of brightness, 
Brilliant braiding of the mind and flesh 
Ignited into flame 
By something quite beyond them both.

2.

Saints and dancers know 
That only through the disciplined and slender stem 
Is glory and the flowering of grace.