what we keep
A few weeks ago I was contacted by an editor to write a piece for a publication. The prompt was, loosely, to write about a piece of art, writing, or music that impressed upon me enough to hang onto it even years later. I had a few ideas. I am a collector of beautiful things and our species is magnificent in its abundance of offerings that fall into that category. I suggested a few I would be happy to share and write about.
The editor chose her favourite and so I wrote that piece for them (for a later publication date). But it got me thinking about the others I submitted and how it might be nice to share one of those with you and, in return, ask you all to share with us some little gem you may have collected on your travels through life and tucked into the pocket of your own heart. That would be quite lovely indeed.
Alright, I will get us started with a song that has come to exemplify my marriage. The longer I’m with my husband, Troy, the more this song means to me. The great poet that was Leonard Cohen wrote “Dance Me to the End of Love” in 1984. Here are the lyrics:
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic ‘til I’m gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh, let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We’re both of us beneath our love, we’re both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic ‘til I’m gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Isn’t it wonderful?
“Oh, let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone”. My word, could any other line speak so profoundly to the devotion and intimacy of enduring love? “Dance me to the children who are asking to be born”. That line just breaks my heart and makes me fall in love with the creative force of life all over again. “Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn.” We live in a culture that celebrates youth and casual passions, burning hot and short. But the tapestry of love is worn and threadbare. It’s transparent and patched and worn soft with time. I wonder how many times I have kissed my husband’s lips and he mine. How many kisses in a lifetime of love?
The video for this song is wonderful, too. They used real couples that had been married for the entirety of their lives and the tenderness and adoration they have for each other is evident in their eyes and how they hold each other. Their loves inspires me. Shouldn’t love always inspire?
I could write about this song and the words for weeks, maybe months and never encapsulate the beauty strung through each line. He will, my man will, dance me to the end of love. A stone carver is working on our headstone at this very moment. On the bottom we are having chiseled in stone “Steadfast until the end. There is no end.” We will find each other again. This, too, I know.
Will you share with us a piece of writing or music or maybe even some other form of art that lifts you and fills you so that we might find it, too?