a woman becomes
the Lead Player
and now the sensibility
can be no other way

how far is it I am willing to go
to be extraordinary
or am I already
finely crafted well enough
perfect
just not aware
that there will always
be those in my imagination
waiting for me to bite
taking me astray

there will come a time
no
now
when I must thrust
the stake into the ground
stand in refusal
no longer matching my life
to someone else’s rules

I am no longer afraid
to rewild myself

the road will not be clear
until I act with beauty and courage
to acknowledge that helpless something
deep inside me needing to be loved

I take the first step
and in each
the road appears
that much further from
the fog machine and fire rings

I wait no more for others to lead
I reach down and find bliss
gifted to me as to no other

and the yellow moon
peering three quarters
from behind earth’s shadow
casts enough light tonight
for me to see my way

.
.
.

Author’s Note:

Tonight at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts I saw the touring production of the Broadway revival of Pippin, forty years after I saw it for the first time on Broadway.

It was 1974 and our high school drama club took a trip to New York City. Pippin was the first Broadway show I ever saw. Also, the night we attended was the very night Ben Vereen returned from a severe accident. We didn’t understand the excitement. Afterwards, we did.

The show has been retooled to be set within a circus, with a few updated references, and a new ending. It has been polished to an even brighter diamond.

My poem is a found poem using some words and ideas from an interview with Stephen Schwartz, Pippin’s author. Also from Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese, Rumi, Rilke’s Letter To A Young Poet, Wendell Barry’s A Timbered Choir, and from Facebook, the folks at Evolver Social Movement, The Spirit That Moves Me, and Goddesses.

I am going through what I might say is a transformation right now. I needed some strong words, images, ideas to help me find the courage to take that first step. All of these fine artists and souls are reaching out to me and guiding me right now.

Much gratitude.

Photos of the Galleria from the balcony of Auditorium Theatre at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.