Prose, Poetry, and Dance

[Mark Metcalfe]

“There comes a time when prose must give way to poetry, and a time when poetry must give way to dance.” -- Sam Kemelson (sp)

Language is a beautiful thing. It can communicate ideas in many shades and
nuance. It can be profane and inspirational, persuasive and nonsensical.

Poetry uses language to communicate virtue, emotion, and deeper
expressions of feeling that common text cannot touch. One can say with
passion that “God loves me so I want to love Him, too.” However consider
the following:

O Love that will not let me go
I rest my weary soul in Thee
I give Thee back the life I owe
That in Thine ocean-depths its flow may richer, fuller be.

There are times when even the poetic expression is inadequate to
communicate something that is best unvocalized, unwritten, inaudible –
meaning without words. The dance is a gesture (more than moving
rhythmically with ones body), a posture, an illustration, and an expression of
meaning without words. It is the dance, the hug, the breaking of the
alabaster box to anoint Jesus’ feet and the mopping of those feet with one’s
hair. That is the dance that cannot be measured in words of prose or poetry;
it is love acted out.

Mark

[Alan Stokes]

Mark,

This is a very intuitive post. I can really appreciate what you are saying about prose, poetry, and dance.

This quotation from President John Kennedy may fit into the theme of your thoughts.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy: "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

[BobHunt]

Great posts! As an aspiring young still learning writer, I really enjoy these kinds of posts!

[Russell Metcalfe]

“There comes a time when prose must give way to poetry, and a time when poetry must give way to dance.” -- Sam Kemelson (sp)

Language is a beautiful thing. It can communicate ideas in many shades and
nuance. It can be profane and inspirational, persuasive and nonsensical.

Poetry uses language to communicate virtue, emotion, and deeper
expressions of feeling that common text cannot touch. One can say with
passion that “God loves me so I want to love Him, too.” However consider
the following:

O Love that will not let me go
I rest my weary soul in Thee
I give Thee back the life I owe
That in Thine ocean-depths its flow may richer, fuller be.

There are times when even the poetic expression is inadequate to
communicate something that is best unvocalized, unwritten, inaudible –
meaning without words. The dance is a gesture (more than moving
rhythmically with ones body), a posture, an illustration, and an expression of
meaning without words. It is the dance, the hug, the breaking of the
alabaster box to anoint Jesus’ feet and the mopping of those feet with one’s
hair. That is the dance that cannot be measured in words of prose or poetry;
it is love acted out.

Mark

Kameleson, Samual-- was speaking at Eastern Nazarene College ten or fifteen years ago (he was professor at Fuller TS) he is a native of India and one inspiritng preacher-- anyway,
as he was preaching he mentioned the name of Jesus--I don't recall quite the context, but as he did he put his fingertips together over his head, like a steeple or roof-- almost unconsciously it seemed-- then he paused and said that this was his way of acknowledging that Jesus is LORD of Sam Kameleson-- Jesus is LORD!-- by this overarching gesture and THEN came the off-hand quote Mark is using:
"Sometimes prose has to give way to poetry, and sometimes poetry has to give way to dance.." which I never forgot and neither has Mark--

Russ

[Gina Stevenson]

great quote ... one that shall be kept, for sure [tho' I've lost a lot of such things in computer crashes in the past few years :( ].

anyway, the Kennedy quote saddened me ... good quote, but unfortunately what came to mind while reading it was how -- from historical records of his less-than-honorable actions sometimes -- the words that were most likely in he & Jackie's marriage ceremony [as is usual] were those by which he did not live, unlike this good quote about living words we've uttered.

Anyway, thanks, both Mark & Russell, for not only giving us this great quote, but explaining the hand movements that accompanied it ... 'think reading that quote in the future will remind me of those, as well.

gina

Mark,

This is a very intuitive post. I can really appreciate what you are saying about prose, poetry, and dance.

This quotation from President John Kennedy may fit into the theme of your thoughts.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy: "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

[Ian Gentles]

I often express myself in my own, not wonderfull poetry.

"Lord in the beginning was my end,
In between need You as my friend!"

Ian Gentles.