Zalka Peetruza
By Ray G. Dandridge
She danced, near nude, to tom tom beat,
With swaying arms and flying feet,
`Mid swirling spangles, gauze and lace,
Her all was dancing-save her face.
A conscience, dumb to brooding fears,
Companioned hearing deaf to cheers;
A body, marshalled by the will,
Kept dancing while a heart stood still:
And eyes obsessed with vacant stare,
Looked over heads to empty air,
As though they sought to find therein,
Redemption for a maiden sin.
`Twas thus, amid force driven grace,
We found the lost look on her face;
And then, to us, did it occur
That, though we saw-we saw not her
By Ray G. Dandridge
She danced, near nude, to tom tom beat,
With swaying arms and flying feet,
`Mid swirling spangles, gauze and lace,
Her all was dancing-save her face.
A conscience, dumb to brooding fears,
Companioned hearing deaf to cheers;
A body, marshalled by the will,
Kept dancing while a heart stood still:
And eyes obsessed with vacant stare,
Looked over heads to empty air,
As though they sought to find therein,
Redemption for a maiden sin.
`Twas thus, amid force driven grace,
We found the lost look on her face;
And then, to us, did it occur
That, though we saw-we saw not her
1 comment:
Thxs it's African American poetry from "The Book of American Negro Poetry", chosen and edited by James weldon Johnson. Negro American can u believe that? Shows how old the book is, it was first published in 1922. Any one calls me a negro nowadays and thats an open invatation for a black eye.
Anyway I was looking through some of the works there and this one touched me...with everything going on in my life right now I felt like I was living it. Know what I mean?
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