DANCING IN THE DARK
      Guy Kettelhack
      (About Poetry Forum)

‘O rose thou art sick,’ Blake said,
predicting the dead
in a blossom, depicting decay
in inordinate life.

All life is inordinate: Tragedy
lurks in the bud, and winter
curls up in the spring.
But when darkness comes after

Sometimes you hear laughter
rise up from dead ends of the thing
that you loved. There’s a secret
enclosed in a hand that’s ungloved

by despair. A whisper can tickle
you like a soft breeze --
a tiny reminder, the gentlest nudge
that’s less tragic than tease.

All passion’s irrational,
caring too much is the way
of the heart. But the oddest
disparity! Seems that hilarity

hides in the center of loss:
whatever destroys also seems
to enjoy making sure that you toss
yourself full into chance.

That’s when you dance.

Judge C.J. Sage’s comments: “The poem seems to need a less cliche title and end line, and there may be other spots where cliche lurks, but ‘Dancing in the Dark’ excels in its sprightly placement and creative use of rhyme, both end and internal. In the first stanza we have said/dead as well as sick/predicting/depicting; in the second stanza we have lurks/curls; in stanza three we have ‘thing’ rhymed with ‘spring" from stanza 2 and ‘laughter’ rhymed with ‘after’ from stanza 2, along with loved/ungloved both in stanza 3; in stanza four there is the breeze/tease rhyme; in stanza 5 we have the wonderful passion/irrational, and caring/disparity/hilarity rhymes; in stanza 6 we have loss/toss, destroys/enjoy, and ‘chance’ rhymed with ‘dance’ from the last line.”

About the InterBoard Poetry Competition
Archive of IBPC Winners
Next Runner Up, May 2004