Jamie Leaping – dedicated to Jamie, Bronwen and Tom

Jamie is a highly gifted dancer, and he and his family are good friends of ours. His mum took some photos of Jamie dancing on Newport Beach last summer, and for some months now these images have been percolating into a poem. So here’s my first poem of 2022. I hope it makes you feel a little lighter.

Let your spirit take flight. Though I doubt we’ll ever jump as high as he does!

JAMIE LEAPING

And here’s Jamie

Up and coming dancer

Scissor splitting the sunset asunder

Dinas Head dazzling

Leaping, stretching

Knifing the waves

Which are dawdling in from Ireland and beyond

Exhaling a gentle foamy breath

As they hit their sanded destination.

He is physicality personified

Ballet brought to life

Vivid, golden

Exploding into uplifting action

Leaving us

His virtual audience

Overawed, breathless.

Trapped in the virtuous circle of delight

As Jamie, leaping

Takes flight.

Like Dolphins arcing through the waves

Gazelles shying on the savanna

Red kite swooping earthwards

Condors catching the thermals

The wolf elevated from

It’s lair

Jamie too is suspended there

Gracing the stage

Rewriting the page

Defying gravity

Springing forth

An acrobat

A tumbler

An athlete of the air

Jamie dancing

Elemental

Jamie soaring

Fundamental

And yet also

Somehow

Transcendental

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