Photo:   Jeffrey Anderson of Paola Styron in FLIGHT

My friend, the beautiful dancer and aerialist Paola Styron sends me poems.  This is her latest gift.  She is the one who took me deeper into Rumi and Hafiz and whose dancing is like poetry – a thing of essential wonder and mystery.

Horses at Midnight Without a Moon   by Jack Gilbert

Our heart wanders lost in the dark woods.
Our dream wrestles in the castle of doubt.
But there's music in us. Hope is pushed down
but the angel flies up again taking us with her.
The summer mornings begin inch by inch
while we sleep, and walk with us later
as long-legged beauty through
the dirty streets. It is no surprise
that danger and suffering surround us.
What astonishes is the singing.
We know the horses are there in the dark
meadow because we can smell them,
can hear them breathing.
Our spirit persists like a man struggling
through the frozen valley
who suddenly smells flowers
and realizes the snow is melting
out of sight on top of the mountain,
knows that spring has begun.