In Honor of Volunteer Week

The Dance

C.K. Williams

A middle-aged woman, quite plain, to be polite about it, and

      somewhat stout, to be more courteous still,

but when she and the rather good-looking, much younger man

      she’s with get up to dance,

her forearm descends with such delicate lightness, such restrained

      but confident ardor athwart his shoulder,

drawing him to her with such a firm, compelling warmth, and

      moving him with effortless grace

into the union she’s instantly established with the not at all

      rhythmically solid music in this second-rate café

that something in the rest of us, some doubt about ourselves, some

      sad conjecture, seems to be allayed,

nothing that we’d ever thought of as a real lack, nothing not to be

      admired or be repentant for,

but something to which we’ve never adequately given credence,

which might have consoling implications about how we misbe-

      lieve ourselves, and so the world,

that world beyond us which so often disappoints, but which

      sometimes shows us, lovely, what we are.

Consider the volunteer who, with grace, draws worthwhile work to her, rhythmically shows us, lovely, what we are.  Celebrate the volunteers in your life – those who choose to dance…

To share your comment about this poem and question click on "write a comment" below.

This is our monthly offering of Words of Courage. It is our hope that the words that you read and the questions you consider will en-Courage you to engage fully in your work in the world.

These "Words of Courage" contributed by Donald Porter, a long time friend and facilitator for CRNT.

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