Dance with the Wind

Dance With the Wind

I like to dance with the wind.

It fills my sails

and opens my heart.

My skirt flutters,

veils soar and take me on their

magic journey.

We tremble like windripples

in the chill of twilight

not lingering too long

in the break between worlds

between twilight and dark

The sand snaps tiny biting specks

against my ankles

like bracelets, they patter me

as if I am spinning

and then realize:

I am spinning.

I can bring you the wind on my shoulders

and wave like a tattered banner

then still…

motion into silence

I fly, I cry, I dance with the wind

and echo her breathing

that fires our souls

with spiritual wanderlust

into ancient, ceaseless,

mysterious music.

Snake Dance

Heart of darkness

Sliver of snaking light

snaking from rump to neck

snaking from spine to spine

winding, drumming.

Skirts fly

sparkles spear into the night

feet are beating

hands palpitating, drums

singing.

The snake she

winds from the beginning of time

from daughter to daughter, you and I

we dance this truth

we dance this truth

together.

Ellen Sander, the poet, is Shoshanim, the bellydancer. A resident of Venice, California, she has published poetry in several journals, including Saturday Afternoon Journal, Words Are Birds and Alladdin’s Magic Lamp. She was recently the featured poet on “Put Your Ears On,” a regular cable television program which concentrates on L.A. poets and authors. She is also a journalist and the author of several published books, including Trips, Rock Life in the 60s. Her writing has been anthologized in Shaman Woman, Mainline Lady, The Best of the Realist and The Conscious Reader, among others, and she has published in Vogue, Saturday Review, The L.A. Weekly, Jazz and Pop, and Rolling Stone, and many others.