VANISHING

 

VANISHING

For George Balanchine on the notion of his that with his death, all his ballets should completely

Vanish (as reported by Clive Barnes in the documentary BALANCHINE LIVES)  

With death's stroke how could his kingdom vanish

I tried to feel along the countries. contours of the inexplicable

Like some blind snow angel wondering

How fold one valentine into another in what descending order

Reprieve no more the gestures frail as snow dissolving into the air

As though the ballets had never been

So emerald, so diamond so full of rubies

Of the forgotten gestures of swans In this particular moment

Apollonian, or Mozart filled rising to the occasion of Heaven

Wings borrowed from another time; Stravinsky's elan

Firebird blazing no more, these escapades

Upon the living stage

Quixote's lamentations, Titania's retinue

Where vanished, where the jazzy splash

Accorded its due the tightrope crossing

Balanced with the serenade triumphant

Falling from the bridge of air again of music

Where, the beloved faces his dilemma

With a secret smile that shimmers and is gone

Softly as into dream sand choreographies sifted 

Sink like a kind of Atlantis of the Dance

From which he will not return.

mary angela douglas 12 may 2024