Remember those Degas paintings of the ballet dancers? Here is a similar figure study, in muted color, but in this instance made of words, not pigment. As this poem by David Tucker closes, I can feel myself holding my breath as if to help the dancer hold her position.
The Dancer
Class is over, the teacher
and the pianist gone,
but one dancer
in a pale blue
leotard stays
to practice alone without music,
turning grand jetes
through the haze of late afternoon.
Her eyes are focused
on the balancing point
no one else sees
as she spins in this quiet
made of mirrors and lightâ
a blue rose on a nailâ
then stops and lifts
her arms in an oval pause
and leans out
a little more, a little more,
there, in slow motion
upon the air.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Reprinted from the 2005 Bakeless Prize winner âLate for Workâ? by David Tucker, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, by permission of the author. âThe Dancerâ? first appeared in âVisions Internationalâ? No. 65, 2001. Copyright © 2001 by David Tucker. Introduction copyright © 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
The Dancer by David Tucker: American Life in Poetry #63 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006
written byTed Kooser
© Ted Kooser
