The Spirit Of The Dance

In the stillness of the before, you languished,
Patiently awaiting the long foreseen call
No more than a thought on the face of the void.
Then out of the silence, the voice of wisdom
Began to sing the eternal harmony,
And you awoke from your slumber and took form
And started to dance over the dark abyss,
A majestic dance of rapture and delight.
As your fleet steps flew over the nothingness
Tiny specks of matter unfurled like flowers,
And bloomed, giving substance to wisdom’s desires,
The moment of beginning of creation.
Time passed and the melody began to change,
Inspiring you to weave ever new patterns
Of rapidly evolving complexity,
Until in instantaneous wondering
A myriad splinters of joy exploded
Across the boundless expanses of spacetime
And flooded the inchoate darkness with light.
As the unimaginable aeons passed
You continued to dance to wisdom’s anthem
And the intricate movements of your ballet
Choreographed a corresponding motion
In the cloud of fundamental particles,
The condensation of matter bringing forth
Stars and galaxies and finally planets
Circling in a contrapuntal symphony
Of thrillingly nuanced possibilities.
 
Four billion years ago on a small rock
In orbit round an insignificant star
In a remote corner of the universe,
The dance ascended to another level,
And inspired by the music of creation
Took a new form with the beginning of life,
And an even more wonderful dance took flight.
The melodies it weaved were simple at first
But slowly over the centuries new threads
Were added to the evolving tapestry
Creating exquisitely complex designs
Of almost unimaginable beauty.
But in a space no longer than a heartbeat
In the long unwinding history of time
There was another chapter to be written
When you would no longer have to dance alone.
A different note began to be discerned
In the eternal music of creation
Faintly at first, but growing ever stronger
In the imagination of a being
Able to perceive the meaning of the dance,
And then frame a new melody of its own
In counterpoint to the music of the spheres.
Falteringly and frequently dissonant
This new strain swelled, and guided by your spirit
Grew in understanding until it blended
In a greater and more complex symphony,
And all creation danced in love and rapture.

In that first Eden where consciousness grew tall
You danced upon the meadows to love’s refrain,
And in that age of innocence, Eve’s children
Danced in simple harmony with creation,
But then in their growing pride and arrogance
Men shut their ears to the love song of the earth,
Thinking that they had no need to heed its words,
And as the brutal hammer blows of their greed
Rained down on the loveliness of your delight,
Your spirit began to die in tears of grief.
Where your dancing steps had sowed flowers of joy
Ugliness bloomed beneath their harsh iron tread,
And jangling voices silenced your cries of pain,
For scorning wisdom, they called their ignorance,
Progress, and their naked lust, the promised land.
But amid the clamour, the small voice of hope
Could still be heard, speaking in the hearts and minds
Of those whose souls still saw echoes of your steps
In the simple unspoiled beauty of a child,
In whose innocence the dance still weaves its tale.
If peace and concord are ever to reign once more
All humanity needs to accept its guilt,
And repent of its worship on the false altar
Of the lust for power and dominance,
And for its belief in material gain,
Whatever the cost in blood and misery.
Salvation for ourselves and our fragile home,
Will come when we dance once more the song of love.