Friday, April 29, 2011

Poetry Friday: Celebrating National Dance Week


Let’s Dance!

Are you ready to dance?
Are you ready to groove?
Find a pose down low. 
Let's start to move!

Let’s rise like the sun
In the morning sky.

Let’s soar like a bird
Flying way up high.

Let’s spin like a top
Going round and round.

Let’s fall like the rain
'Til it hits the ground.

Let’s creep like a worm
Through the grass and mud.

Let’s bounce like a ball:
Thud, thud, thud, thud.

Let’s leap like a frog,
Jumping fast for fun.

Now freeze in a pose--
And our dance is done!


I'm in India right now (for a wedding next week), and I'm a bit jetlagged. This morning, as my husband kept sleeping beside me (apparently he is not as jetlagged as I am), I needed to find something to occupy my time. So what else than to write a poem!

So, in the early hours of the morning, as the sun was just rising, I wrote this short action rhyme in honor of National Poetry Month and National Dance Week (in the United States), which happen to be overlapping for the next couple of days. My hope is to get young children up and moving...maybe even inspire a few to create dances of their own this week. 

Today is an extra special day, though. It is also International Dance Day, so you can celebrate dance wherever you live. And, it is Poetry Friday! Tabatha Yeatts is hosting the celebration at The Opposite of Indifference. Hope you can join in!

11 comments:

  1. Very glad to celebrate National Dance Week with you, Kerry!

    I particularly liked:

    "Let’s fall like the rain
    'Til it hits the ground.

    Let’s creep like a worm
    Through the grass and mud.

    Let’s bounce like a ball:
    Thud, thud, thud, thud."

    Enjoy the wedding!

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  2. this is awesome! going to share right now! :)

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  3. poetry and dance... and remy charlip came to mind while reading this, with his imaginary dances.

    love the idea of creeping like a worm as a dance.
    wonderful fun here.

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  4. Kerry -- have a wonderful trip. I know you will "soar like a bird
    Flying way up high"
    when it's time to dance at the wedding.

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  5. Enjoy the wedding. That would make a super performance piece for little poets of the body.

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  6. Thanks, everyone for the encouragement. Apparently there are going to be a few dance performances (by family) at the wedding, and I keep getting asked to perform...and I keep declining because I don't have anything prepared and don't feel comfortable improvising for such an important event. But Blythe's comment has given me an idea! Maybe I can gather up the youngest kids attending the wedding, and I can recite the poem while they do a creative dance for the guests. I'll have to see if it works out, but thanks for the inspiration, all!

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  7. Wow! There's a lot to celebrate! Thanks for a fun post.

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  8. We often assume the overlap between poetry and music but miss the commonalities of "the dance of the tongue" and the dance of the body. Thanks for highlighting all these synergizing observances, and have a lovely wedding. (The kids will be charming no matter what.)

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  9. Love this action poem--lovely language, but easy for kids to interpret and act out. I hope you did end up reciting it at the wedding!

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  10. I really love this poem and I'm going to use it when I'm babysitting (for multiple 2-year-olds) this week!

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