Frances Dancing with Martinů

Light shines through your eyes

and you would dance as well as play.

The score before you holds you

but your feet won't stay.

And this is Martinů and you,

and we, the audience are in it too.

Five lines, and five, and five again

the page hung with ellipses

some in solitary, hollow state

command your bow to draw

its length across the string

and others, black, trip hand in hand,

take you up ladder-lines

and off the top

or tumble, space through space

until a cadence catches them.

Curved lines sweep over

melismatic flow;

staccato dots break in.

Where blocks and squiggles

let you snatch a breath

the bow flicks up and off,

the strings are singing still.

You show us how

he put the signs in line

to tell you what he felt.

You take the page of symbols,

put the music back

and we are privileged to join

the dance with Martinů and you.

HELEN ASHLEY