By Lily Swarn
”Dancing is like dreaming with your feet,” said the wise Constanze. The wondrous thing, is that one can dance anywhere, even if only in our hearts.The sight of a group of tribal ladies, dancing in the sun, with wild flowers in their hair, is delightful. An unseen, mystical bond, seems to have magically erupted, between the supreme power and the dancer. A gilded halo of luminisence, seems to hang around, a blissfuly dancing human. An aura of oneness with all creation, and of being merged, with the entire universe. Dancers shed inhibitions and dance to their own instinctive beats and rhythms. Having grown up in the north of india, my blood leaps and bounds in ecstasy to the sound of a drum beating in the distance. The ‘taal”, of the drumbeats reaching a sonorous crescendo, lifts up my spirits, like no other and an instinctive, intuitive urge to kick up my heels and dance, envelops me. I simply have to get up and do my folk dance moves, in gay abandon!.
Dance is the hidden language of the soul, singing symphonies of primordial urges, as everything in the universe has rhythm; everything sways and dances. A mother rocks her baby to sleep, to a tune, she knows from eternity.Therefore, it is not strange, that lamentation dirges, also have a rhythmic tone and beating of chests !!. It is believed that Socrates learnt to dance, when he was seventy, as he thought an important part of his life, had been neglected. I coudn’t agree more, repressions vanish into thin air, inhibitions creep and crawl away in shame, as the lady, moves on the dance floor …”nach lao ni kudiyo, khed lao ni kudiyo, nachna khedna reh jaayega, koi bujjad jeha jatt lai jayyega!!’, goes an old “”giddha ” , boli .’
Have you ever seen the wild daffodils, merrily moving, to the music of the perfumed mountain breezes, in a corner of the himalyas? Ah, its a delectable sight.The drunken dance of the pines and cedars in the wintry gales and storms, is a work of art, engineered by the master musiciian. The ballet of life is not too different, as we learn to change our steps and moves to the changing musical patterns, that the lord throws our way. No snow storm, no blizzard, can stop the first snowdrop from rearing its dainty head!! So, do give poetry to your feet, let them dance. Words dance too. ”teri aawaaz aaj bhi mere kaanon mein raks karti hai, tera ik baar ka kehna ke ‘tum sirf mere ho”.
International Beat Poet Laureate India 2023 -2024 ,Caesar Vallejo award for literary excellence by UHE ,Lily Swarn, internationally acclaimed ,multilingual poet, novelist, essayist , columnist, gold medalist, university colour holder, radio show host, Peace and Humanity ambassador .
She has over 70 international and national awards including Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi award and her poetry is translated into 21 languages۔
Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi has awarded her recently “The Best Book of the Year Award ( 2023) ” for her book of English Poetry ,The Divine Dialect of Flowers۔ Lily Swarn can be reached at sukhish83@gmail.com
