This has nothing to do directly with dancing, but everything to do with Spirit and Life. It was written by an aquaintance of mine, an abbot at a Zen center in New Mexico where I attended a training. I think there is something here for everyone. For clarification, the reference to "horno" is to a meat smoker. The second paragraph of this poem is particularly rich for me. I hope that something in this touches you:
xmas in a zen center, notes on why i live dangerously
it is unfathomable
a zen center celebrates xmas
done it for years,
because it is unfathomable.
we'd rather drop into a measureless sea
than be stranded by dry ideas
cooking a feast for all foundlings
eating, singing, remembering, then dying into the night
the taste of sadness
a season reminding us of our individual “thens�?
hard or not, near or far-gone,
some of us orphans, all of us to be soon.
the joy of friends gathered
the gratitude to be able to do this at all
in a world where so many will not or cannot
the crazy young man, smelling of wood smoke and old clothes, comes through the door
squatting on the floor, stocking cap holding down wiry hair, blue eyes not focussing
another youth with muslim beard and white cap, nameless, appears at the table
and the elders and young ones holding onto each other
through their open eyed kind glances
the afroamerican zen man sings o holy night
the white man sings on the road back home
harold littlebird's tewa buddhist words
we eat food born
from the smoke smudged snow covered horno
after singing into the darkness
make our way into the pinon charged air
we cannot forget this world,
torn about by dogs of war,
the utter briefness of our lives here
james brown gone
the raw and gravel left with us
and the treasure of friendship
on this ship of practice
