Poem Of The Week 'Square Dancing' by Maggie Harris

SQUARE DANCING


Remember that square in Kilrush, Co Clare
folk violins in the rain?
The town was out dancing
the dance caller calling
another two for the frame

Square-shouldered we stood by the side of the road
and watched as they circled -
old men of eighty, young girls of ten
Mammies and Daddies
waltzed and reeled and twirled

And my dreams lay down on the stones there
the whole of the moon in my eyes
and they danced, they danced
right over my bones
through the shawl I’d worn for the night
in their strong country brogues
and silver-heeled shoes
skipped light through the pores of my skin

and my head turned too, and my eyes drew
her there by the side of the road
the whole of her face in the dream of the dance
with her feet in a beat on the stone

Square-shouldered you stood
by the side of the road
while her eyes so wild for the dream of the night
calling and calling
the moon’s cold falling
on feet and earth
and rhythms bleeding
dances of rain in that square
in Kilrush, Co Clare


Maggie Harris is originally from Guyana, she now lives in Kent, and work full time as a poet and festival director of the Inscribing the Island Literature Festival in East Kent. Her first collection Limbolands (see www.mangoprint.com) won the Guyana Prize for Literature 2000. She also have 2 cds incorporating songs, poetry and music, one for adults, 'listen to de riddum' and one for young people, 'Anansi meets Miss Muffet' recipient of an East England Arts Award. In 1994 she was selected as part of the Women Writers Exchange. Currently working on a memoir about growing up in Guyana.