Coffee and doughnuts, warm brownies and vanilla ice-cream, Woody and Buzz Lightyear, Tom and Jerry, Scarlett and Rhett, burger and fries, grilled cheese and tomato soup, dosa and coconut chutney, puri and potato curry, and… well, the list can go on for cool pairings. And I believe, poetry and dance is one such cool pairing too! While poetry makes us think of readings at the most, and dance makes us think of music and songs, poetry and dance together can create magic.

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Poetic Sundays: Poetry and Dance

Today, I had hoped to write about jazz poetry to kind of make this post a grand trifecta of sorts, for this coming week has International Dance Day and International Jazz Day coming up, and of course it is National Poetry Month. So to write about a poetic form that is used for music and also for dance seemed apt.

But then again, I found myself at a loss of words, for this form is more about feeling the rhythm and the beat of jazz, of understanding the music first, than of having any other rules. So, as my teens work on learning jazz music (my son, on his piano and trumpet) and dance (my daughter) forms, I hope to learn and appreciate it better, and then write about jazz poetry.

Until then, here is my version of writing about the meeting of poetry and dance.

NaPoWriMo Day 24 Prompt

The prompt: Channel your inner gumshoe, and write a poem in which you describe something with a hard-boiled simile. Feel free to use just one, or try to go for broke and stuff your poem with similes till it’s . . . as dense as bread baked by a plumber, as round as the eyes of a girl who wants you to think she’s never heard such language, and as easy to miss as a brass band in a cathedral.

Today’s prompt for NaPoWriMo has nothing to do with dance, but when I read through few of the entries, I knew I had to at least give it a try. And so in the end, here it is, honestly just trying and, not not-failing.

When Words Refuse to Dance
I dream of a magic pen,
that lets my words glide
across
the pages
like
ballerinas on
stages.

I sigh,
set the dream aside,
and watch my words
as instead they slide –
like clumsy cartoon characters,
with flippers, no less,
and on extra wet stairs.

Making them dance
seems to be,
as tough as
Hulk’s hide,
or as tough as
piercing it
(I know, I tried).

Instead, they jive
as cringily as
a handful of chalks
on a squeaky
board.

My wo(bi)rd-brain, it
seems to be
topsy-turvy
and “squeamy”
like me – after
twisting and twirling,
spinning and swirling,
in a never ending roller-coaster of a dance.
~ vidya tiru @ ladyinreadwrites

Dance to Poetry

Today, I bring you a few videos that show you how amazing it is when art forms meet. You can watch the embedded videos or click through the links to YouTube to watch the videos

From a powerful BLM performance

to this breathtaking tugging-at-heart-strings performance for To This Day

Here we have Sherrie Silver and Amanda Gorman’s Spectacular Dance/Poetry Performance at a Women of the World Summit

This performance of Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise set to the Indian classical dance of Bharatanatyam is beautiful and powerful, just like the poem itself

I also loved watching this amazing jazz performance for YOUR KISS – poem by Moe Seager

as well as this Bharatanatyam rendition of a spoken word poem about Depression

and this contemporary dance routine for Mary Lambert’s Lay Your Head Down

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Recently

At Home and On My Blog

Not much at home. With my high-schooler’s spring break in session, and a busy workload for DH and me, we ended up staying home. Well, my teenager spent time with her friends each day, and it took me back to childhood vacations where I spent each lazy afternoon chatting with friends about who-knows-what! And we canceled our plans to drive down to meet our college freshman because our contractor (for all the minor projects we had piled up) said he is free this weekend. Their schedules rule after all!!

My recent posts since and including my last Sunday Scribblings. Each letter of the alphabet features a poetic form for the letter as well as one or more books (poetry related).

• Sunday Scribblings #104: Happy World Haiku Day
• One Word Poems and Practical Cats
• The Thoughtful Pensee and the Beautiful Path to Kindness
• Quintilla Be Quick as a Cricket
• The Cool Rimas Dissolutas and the Red Hot Salsa
• Shout Out the Symetrelle With a Smile
• A Trova Here and a Toe There

Upcoming

On My Blog & Homefront

Down to the final stretch of April’s month-long challenges where you can look forward to the U-Z journey with half the letters confounding many of us on these challenges. We have part two of minor home projects for the weekend scheduled as well.

This Week’s Celebrations

Literary Celebrations (close-to-it also!)

• Literary birthdays this week of April include: James Fenton on 25th; Lisa Unger 26th; August Wilson, Cecil Day Lewis, Mary Wollstonecraft 27th; Harper Lee and Terry Pratchett 28th; William Randolph Hearst, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Bharathidasan on the 29th; Annie Dillard 30th; Joseph Heller, Karen Thompson Walker on May 1st
• The 27th is National Tell a Story Day
• National Great Poetry Reading Day is on the 28th
• It is National Poem In Your Pocket Day on April 29th(Changes Annually)
• May 1st is National Mother Goose Day

Foodie Celebrations

• National Zucchini Bread Day on the 25th starts off this week
• The 26th of April si National Pretzel Day
• April 27th is National Gummi Bear Day* and being the Last Wednesday in April, also is Stop Food Waste Day 
• National Blueberry Pie Day is on the 28th of April
• 30th of April for National Bubble Tea Day, National Oatmeal Cookie Day, and National Raisin Day
• May begins with National Chocolate Parfait Day on the 1st, and as it is the first Sunday in May, it is also National Lemonade Day

Other Celebrations

• April 25th celebrates these suited creatures with World Penguin Day and National Telephone Day
• The 26th happens to be World Intellectual Property Day, National Audubon Day, and National Richter Scale Day
• April 27th is World Tapir Day 
• Pay it forward, and be a hero in someone’s life on the 28th, as it is Global Pay It Forward Day and National Superhero Day
• The 29th of April is National Peace Rose Day, International Dance Day and World Wish Day
• While the 30th celebrates International Jazz Day, and being the Last Saturday in April, also celebrates World Tai Chi and Qigong Day, International Sculpture Day, World Veterinary Day and National Sense of Smell Day
• The 30th also happens to be National PrepareAthon! Day, National Honesty Day, and National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day
• ,And the 1st of May is May Day as well as Global Love Day and International Workers’ Day
• Since the 1st is also the First Sunday in May, it is World Laughter Day 

Wrapping up my Sunday Scribblings

So dear reader, you have reached the end of this Sunday Scribblings! As always, I welcome your thoughts, comments, and suggestions about this post. And do let me know if you plan to celebrate any of these mentioned celebrations this coming week/month? What do you think of the intersections of different forms? Which combination appeals to you the most?

Previous posts for these challenges (the A2Z, NaPoWriMo and UBC) are in links below.

Day 0  Day 1 – A  Day 2 – B  Day 3  Day 4 – C  Day 5 – D  Day 6 – E  Day 7 – F  Day 8 – G  Day 9 – H  Day 10  Day 11 – I  Day 12 – J  Day 13 – K  Day 14 – L  Day 15 – M  Day 16 – N Day 17  Day 18 – O  Day 19 – P Day 20 – Q Day 21 – R Day 22 – S Day 23 – T

Linking up to NaPoWriMo, and the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Also linking this to the Sunday Post over at the Caffeinated Reviewer and the Sunday Salon