Tag: dance

Sometimes good things happen

Published on by Maciej ModzelewskiLeave a comment

Sometimes good things happen
where you least expect them, like when you mix reheated leftover buckwheat groats
with peanut butter—because that’s all you had in the fridge—and discover
that not only is it edible, but it’s actually delicious; or when you read an essay by Mark Twain
with no particular expectations only to notice with amusement that it’s dated
to the early 1990s; or when you open the curtains and pause for a moment, mesmerised
by the dance of light and shadow on the wall of your study, caused by the sunlight
reflecting off the windows of the ramshackle across the street.

Sometimes good things happen
as the trinkets of the day.

A watercolour picture showing a group of dancing ballerinas

Nothing more than oddly arranged words

Published on by Maciej Modzelewski1 Comment

I don’t get ballet,
or more generally, dance.

As a man of words myself, I see bookshops as chapels
and libraries as cathedrals,
yet both maintain the intimate comfort of my boudoir.
You get the picture.

The same applies to the visual arts.
I still have vivid memories of long discussions with my friend
about painting—for her, it ended with impressionism,
while for me, impressionism began the real deal.

And I will not even mention music—one of the loves of my life.
After all, even deaf people enjoy it,
perceiving the sound as vibrations through the body.
‘Hearing is basically a specialised form of touch.’

Then, what’s my problem with dance—ballet specifically, you ask?
Well, to me, it’s nothing but some bizarre physical exercise,
and while I can appreciate the aesthetics of whirling dervishes,
I see them more as moving statues, if anything.

But what do I know? If you think about it, you could say that a poem
is nothing more than oddly arranged words.