Prelude

To begin, sound each note, define the ground
of being, count the steps
across the space from here to there
and back to a new beginning.

Now sound out with each sense
ways through the thicket
here and there, some
leading on, some meandering.

Choose one and follow the path, resisting
at first the easy way
across the space from here to there :
discover an opening.


Allemande

Now is the time to dance with free steps
light as a bird in the air
winging the wind, opening the sky
above; the ground a sounding board
for silence between the pulses,
of an incipient tune.


Courante

Weaving the path of the labyrinth
the way opens, unresisting:
each tight turn more of glide
than a twist, stepping this way, stepping that,
finding the way through, slipping
with sure feet past each parting of the ways.



Sarabande

Slow now, almost still at the core
silence budding into being, into sound
serenely welling from the source
flowing into the world of sense
from an otherworld of unsung song.





Bourrée / Gavotte

Is this the way back? No hesitation
each step steady, though tripping
over familiar ground, finding a new way
forward, a quick step home.


Gigue

The heart now harmoniously beating,
a flutter here, a flutter there,
the way clear as the dance ends,
the final step
                         a stepping over.




______________________________________________________

Note: Each of the section names reflect the forms of dances used by baroque composers to write contrapuntal sequences, or ‘suites’,
where the ‘dance’ was expressed as a musical development often performed on a single instrument.

*

This sequence first appeared in the anthology The Deep Music