Monday, March 10, 2014

Evening Ballet--By Joann Grisetti--United States

Evening Ballet

we begin our dance
you brush, I wash my face
you floss, I brush
and so on until we finish,
the last pirouette into the bed

this choreography
designed and rewritten
over four decades
a practiced and perfected
pas de deux

tonight I flounder
for my partner I have
a mere reflection
from an unreliable mirror
showing an old woman

she cannot be truth
for I am nineteen –
always nineteen in your eyes –
as you are twenty in mine
at least, until I closed them

Joann Grisetti has been writing for 45 years. She is a retired teacher from Florida. She receives encouragement from her daughter and has recently enrolled in a creative writing workshop. She is a member of Poetry Soup. You can read more of her poetry there.

8 comments:

  1. Sure enjoyed this wonderful poem so well written. I can so relate as I was nineteen and my sweetheart 20 when we were married. Thank you for sharing a delightful poem and your special talent.
    Love, Charlene

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  2. Expressive poetry - I was 18, he was 20 when married. Can't believe that was 55 years ago. I guess that is why I am still dreaming of him today, never truly got over our divorce after 25 years - just moved on so to speak! Amazing how someone elses words can bring back one own memories...

    Rhoda Galgiani

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  3. Hi, Joann, enjoyed your cute poem and how you define the routines of familiarity...... playful and enjoyable to read yet with a bit of sentimental recall in expressing a thought... Sheri

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  4. Dear Joanna,
    When couples are together for a long time, the evening rituals can surely be compared to a "pas de deux." The first portion of the poem made me smile. Then when you described the old woman looking back at you in the mirror, I realized I am not alone. I don't use mirrors very often for the obvious reasons, but when I do, I see my mother or my grandmother looking back at me. Amazing irony in a very well composed verse. Best wishes always, Carolyn

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  5. Thank you, Christine Tate, for the following comment--

    Hi Joann, I think your poem is wonderful! Isn't it amazing how youthful we feel until we look too closely in a mirror? Great message here about the "true" test of love, & how it should run deeper than the outward appearance as the years pass. I enjoyed reading your poem! ~Chris

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  6. Thank you, Isha Wagner, for this comment--

    Just to say Joann Grisetti's words in Evening Ballet superbly put together showing well how we just don't believe we can be old and after all it's only other people who grow old, is it not?! The inherent sadness in life shows up cleverly and yet we march on to our fate inexorably, throwing kisses to the past. We are all rather strange methinks. Congrats to Joann.

    Regards
    Isha Wagner

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  7. Dear Joann -

    Reading your Evening Ballet l was so happy and then the weeping came. It is the story of love and its aging right before us, still seeing the 19 and 20 year old in each other's eyes. How fast the dance went and suddenly I am old and the ballet seems just a dream. This is one of most special poems I have ever read, my friend, and I will read it again. It goes to my favorites page into the pages of the book of my heart.

    xxx's ooo's

    Kathy

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  8. Love the "Evening Ballet," Joann. It is nicely descriptive; choreographed nicely. Thanks for sharing.

    -Maurice J. Reynolds, Owner / Editor
    TGBTG! Publications / Creative Inspirations
    www.tgbtgpublictions.com

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