The Tao of Russian Ballet

 

In ballet, there is music

and soul—enthroned

in the heart—and even

something more—beyond

 

which reverence forbids

to be named or bound,

and then there is a body

let to sway and flow

 

into beauty, touching

on that ineffable and

sublime, and if the Tao

Te Ching says (Verse

 

Twenty Four) that no

one can stand firm

on tiptoe and that no

one can walk straight

 

with legs wide apart,

sadly the sage forgot

or did not know yet

about the Ballerinas.

 

And when it comes to

honoring the human form,

even in terms of the Tao

and the ensuing oneness

 

wedding nature and art,

only Egyptian and Greek

statues and their later

revivals could rival

 

the genius of Russian ballet

when it’s set on making music

with a body as its instrument

and on writing gallant poetries

 

with faces, feet, and arms

and lines lit aglow, and while

we try to walk the Tao’s path,

ballerinas turned it into dance.