NaPoWriMo #3 – The Leap / New Life

This is my third post for National Poetry Month 2010
• one free verse poem
• one haiku

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…facing one’s fear…

 

The Leap

•

she need not be frightened
she knows the moves
sees the steps
clearly in her mind

she knows the stride
the position of her body
just before elevation

she understands the speed
the run up
the lead foot
the plant angle
the knee bend
the thrust

she has done this
literally thousands of repetitions
no need for trepidation

she knows the energy of the moment
of the crowd
as they anticipate
as she anticipates
the lift off
the rise

the glorious weightlessness
the thrill of flying
the feel of returning to earth
to her toes
her feet
how to offset the momentum

to snap to a graceful stop
come to point
straight and strong
arms raised and extended

the applause
that exhilaration

she knows this all
to her bones

she can do this
in her sleep

she has this mastered
she is a master dancer

but

that flash of doubt
and again
she fails

there is now one leap
she fears she cannot master

the leap
back through time
to her youth
to her glory
her invincibility

still
she leaps

she will always
leap

• • •

________________________

 

 

New Life

•

wife in her mud shoes

clatter in the potting shed

soon will come new life

• • •

poem and haiku by: rob kistner © 2010

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…for more fearless NaPoWriMo 2010 poems: readwritepoem

26 thoughts on “NaPoWriMo #3 – The Leap / New Life

  1. I like the build up and sense of suspense in ‘The Leap’. Just waiting for the fall.
    I’m glad ‘New Life’ includes the words ‘mud shoes’ and ‘potting shed’, otherwise it makes her sound like a mad professor… 🙂

  2. Wow! A poem perfectly in tune with the visual image — and the balanced form of the poem. Each line built the tension; the denouement was unexpected and yet inevitable. May your poetry continue to leap, and your wife continue with “mud shoes”, happily in tune.

  3. I lke the comparison of the leap to that of an accomplished performer…getting a lot harder as one gets older but still trying. Good one

  4. I love the mud shoes and the potting shed…as far as the leap goes–well I’ve never flown that high, but I can identify with the falling.

  5. That is all a dancer is trained to do, to leap; to stretch the boundaries and defy gravity. Love the continuity of life you so aptly portrait in your poems. A truly miraculous poem. May you and your love ones continue to defy gravity. I love the ideas which spring from your imaginative leaping dear poet, musician, artist, Renaissance Rob! Many continued Happy Spring leapings ad infinitum!

  6. even if she only leaps in her memory – beautiful and I love the haiku. Potting sheds and mud and new life – spring leaps!

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