Get up
Get up
The universe is dancing.
You must get up and dance!
you don’t have a choice
if you can’t hear the song
and you fall out of step
it will drag you along.
Get up!
Get up!
The universe is dancing!
You must get up and dance!
though your heart weighs you down
like a full term child,
your grief has stunned your mind,
and you slip in the flood
of your bloody tears,
you cannot stay behind.
Get up!
Get up!
THE UNIVERSE IS DANCING!
YOU MUST GET UP AND DANCE!
It’s dancing and dancing and dancing and dancing
GET UP!
Picture courtesy of Nina Teresa
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Good advice – hard to follow – lovely poem.
Sometimes Life takes our dance through the steps of grief. Then our steps become slow and heavy but they keep moving. It is the staying still in the depths of despair that can kill you little by little each day. The secret is to keep moving even if it is very slowly. Know that you aren’t dancing alone. Feel the arms around your middle holding you up until you have the strength to stand alone. You are loved.
A fine poem with an excellent message: get up! get up! Get up and Dance”. But the poem also provokes a question: Is there a difference between grief and depression? Will the poem resonate differently with one who is afflicted with grief than with one who is afflicted with depression. Both have the challenge to overcome their dispair. But how will this poem resonnate with one who has just lost a child or a loved one. “Get up and dance!? Oh, ya. I just lost my 19 old son in a car accident and you say “get up and dance. Oh, ya!Forget it!!”
On the other hand, this poem could well be a tonic to one who is depressed, yet has everthing to live for and is surrounded with love, family snd s comfortable environment. Even those who may be lonely and poor, yet have good health and not suffered from premature loss. These individuals more than likely want to get up and dance, but lack the motvation energy and can’t get up the courage. Hopefully your poem will spark the motivation and inspire the courage. I hope so!
Corinne, I was so privileged to be with you in person and in spirit many times during Arlene’s last year and I shall never forget that lovely Mother’s Day when I was in a sun-filled and Spring flowered park in Saratoga Springs and I got a message from you on my cell phone that Arlene had passed. I could put myself there right now. You are healing more and more every day doing the little things we all do while moving through grief, putting the pictures away, finally deleting the phone number, etc. Healing (which means to beome whole again) takes time – whatever time you need. I think it’s very important for you to write about this – it makes me wonder what people will write about me. I sure know what I will write about you – what I called you the other day — a blesed aberration. Or a one-of-a-kind piece. Bless you.
Thanks, Chris. Missed you. Nice to have your on board again!
You are right. It is hard to do.
See some of my other replies.
Dear Patricia – (and Design your own t shirt)
You hit on the key to it. We have to keep moving. And as you said, Patricia, sometimes ever so slowly.
When we encounter a large and important loss, the inclination is to sink. It is a form of paralysis.
Some of that is good – we must mourn – but it can become toxic. We become reclusive. And many people stay that way. I had a neighbor who lost her son and she did not speak to anyone for five yesrs. If you said hello, she did not answer. She never recovered.
Dear Reed -
You bring up an important point in your thoughtful comment.
Although grief and depression sometimes manifest in similar ways, they are different.
I don’t think a clinically depressed person can be helped by telling them to snap out of it. It is a medical problem.
As Patricia said, when you are grieving, it helps to move a little – just to get started in life again.
When you are ready -
Dear Lily Rose -
Regarding your statement -
“it makes me wonder what people will write about me.”
I think people will write that there was nothing you missed! You lived life fully and with huge enthusiasm -
true compassion to all -
and strong opinions on everything.
That’s the most interesting thing about you!
We never have to ask, “Lily Rose, how do you really feel about this?”
I love your comments on my blog!
We are each deeply engaged in a dance of life. This may be viewed as a shamanic healing dance that the soul knows well. Everyone gets up to dance, but does not always acknowledge the reasons why. Life is about rediscovering reasons for joy. Every person has them, creates them and will know again.
Dear Liara -
I loved this part of your comment -
“Everyone gets up to dance, but does not always acknowledge the reasons why.”
I don’t like to plan too far ahead. You just gave me the ideal excuse!
Thanks for your wonderful comment, Liara.
Junie said -
Love this poem. Remember vividly that you recited it at Dad’s funeral.
Well,
Short sentences, good rythm, i like this one,
In this time of financial crises arround our world, we all forget to take a dance!
Nice..
Hi Corinne, very nice poem. Hard to follow for my low lever english, but it sounds very good