Rudolph Nureyev and Dame Joan Fonteyne
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
The arts endeavor lifting high
The heart in beauty or in anger, woe
Or joy as though a wizard with a sly
Baton is waving it, as if a glow
From it can raise a unicorn or long
Dead soul, or something deeper in our guts.
Balletic leaps by men’s strong thighs prolong
The time that they float up above our struts,
Defying gravity’s low law to lend
Arced thrills. The ballerinas mutilate
Their feet to help their beauty to ascend
To tell us their slim arms don’t share our fate.
Silk slippers tiptoe, stretching hands away
To transcendental loveliness’s sway.
~ Phillip Whidden
