My stiff-spread arms Break into sudden gesture; My feet seize upon the rhythm; My hands drag it upwards: Thus I create the dance. I drink of the red bowl of the sunlight: I swim through seas of rain: I dig my toes into the earth: I taste the smack of the wind: I am myself: I live. The temples of the gods are forgotten or in ruins: Professors are still arguing about the past and the future: I am sick of reading marginal notes on life, I am weary of following false banners: I desire nothing more intensely or completely than this present; There is nothing about me you are more likely to notice than my being: Let me therefore rejoice silently, A golden butterfly glancing against an unflecked wall. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON BEING BROUGHT FROM AFRICA TO AMERICA by PHILLIS WHEATLEY SONNET ON PIETRO REGGIO HIS SETTING TO MUSIC MR. COWLEY'S POEMS by PHILIP AYRES LINES ADAPTED TO A FAVOURITE MILITARY AIR by JAMES HAY BEATTIE ADVICE TO A BLUE-BIRD by MAXWELL BODENHEIM FALSEHOOD by WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT THE SPECIAL DARLING by ALICE CARY ABRAHAM LINCOLN by THOMAS CURTIS CLARK |