Blythely Dancing

It’s the last day of National Poetry Month, and it has meant a lot to me to share some of my favorite poems here and also some vulnerable works of my own. I don’t think I can tie a neat bow around the experience, but I  wish instead to continue to share and create. So for today, I’m passing along a piece by Rudyard Kipling that I find quite inspiring (I just ignore the gendered language of the final lines), and a rough draft by me reflecting a personal struggle.  Through poetry, we can grapple with complexity and come up with new wisdom.  If-- by Rudyard Kipling If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream--and no

Today we look at poetic themes of diversity, equality, and the exhilaration of performance. Kind of random, I know, but both beautiful, in their own way. Celebrating all the ways that people are! People Equal by James Berry Some people shoot up tall. Some hardly leave the ground at all. Yet-people equal. Equal. One voice is a sweet mango. Another is a nonsugar tomato. Yet- people equal. Equal. Some people rush to the front. Others hang back, feeling they can’t. Yet-people equal. Equal.  Hammer some people, you meet a wall. Blow hard on others, they fall. Yet-people equal. Equal. One person will aim at a star. For another, a hilltop is too far. Yet-people equal. Equal. Some people get on with their show. Others never get on the go. Yet-people equal. Equal. Sun as Spotlight by Blythe Stephens Showing the dawn  something to remember. Dancing dangerously Without falling From the edge of the stage. Held

Is joy a good or necessary thing? Is happiness somehow bad, evil, or unworthy? This is not a comprehensive study, just a couple brief poetic ideas about whether it is right to enjoy life. A Brief for the Defense By Jack Gilbert Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils. But we enjoy our lives because that's what God wants. Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women at the fountain are laughing together between the suffering they have known and the awfulness in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody in the village is very sick. There is laughter every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta, and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay. If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction, we lessen the importance of their deprivation.

National Poetry Month is nearly over, but poetry will continue to be a part of my life every month. I hope you’ll join me in a poetic odyssey of your own :) Things by Eloise Greenfield Went to the corner Walking in the store Bought me some candy Ain’t got it no more Ain’t got it no more Went to the beach Played on the shore Built me a sandhouse Ain’t got it no more Ain’t got it no more Went to the kitchen Lay down on the floor Made me a poem Still got it Still got it  Poetry Practice by Blythe Stephens Poetry is a lot like dance Or I guess any art It’s going to be crap Until you’ve done a crapload of it So might as well start now (thanks, Ira Glass!)

This poem was part of a collaboration with poet Jenna Robinson and the dancers of my MFA in Dance thesis performance, "The Shrew Unleashed," at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. It was performed for public and school audiences in the spring of 2015. Robinson is an award-winning slam poet. Wonder Woman by Jenna Robinson As a child I always looked up to Wonder Woman An Amazon Seven foot tall Greek warrior A defender of fertility and innocence Like Maori women Who would follow men into battle And come home to raise future chiefs Like African slaves brought to American plantations Who picked cotton all day While carrying their babies on their backs Like immigrants Who cut off their native tongues Hoping to give their children a taste of the American dream I’ve always been self-conscious of this girth But wonder woman allowed me to see size as strength As a long lost descendent of the Amazonian race We were made to fight leagues of