The Waltzer's Pantoum

If you haven’t yet waltzed, you can’t know how it is.
Stepping in time, sure, that’s a start.
It seems so simple, just turning like this,
But the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Stepping in time is a sure way to start,
Dodging her foot as you take to the floor.
But the whole is more than the sum of its parts,
And both of you find an increasing rapport.

Dodging another foot, crossing the floor,
More dancers surround you, all twirling like spheres,
And both of you find an increasing rapport
In threading a pathway through all of your peers.

More dancers everywhere blend into spheres,
The whirling lines blurring as sight slips aside.
In weaving a pattern with all of your peers,
You find space connects that had seemed to divide.

As blurring lines whirl and sight steps aside,
You find a new power that carries you on:
The space fills with music that cannot divide
But sweeps you all with it — you find that you’re drawn

By this powerful loving that carries you on,
Arcing through melody, space, and then time,
You’re swept up, and in the new poem that’s drawn,
Your bodies shape stanzas, the pivots all rhyme.

Arcing through melody, space, and then time,
Musicians and dancers transcending the hall,
We all come together in one joyful rhyme,
Not leading, not following, dancing with all.

The music, the dance, have transcended the hall,
It’s simple, yet infinite, turning like this,
You follow the Leader by dancing with all,
But now that you’ve waltzed... well, you know how it is.