Dip your hands in colours ... and finger paint me pictures of all you see
Ursula Le Guin, in the introduction to "Left Hand of Darkness," made a comment to the effect of "we [authors] write novels to try to express things which cannot be expressed in words."
It's hard for me to understand and expound upon why I like dancing so much and why I seem to gravitate toward the period dancing that (thank goodness) is available in my area, but I think this quote manages to describe it fairly well:
The Auctioneer’s Woo:
First up is a mint, a classic:
May I have this dance: a phrase for thy empire
waisted who know the finickeries and fineries
of a pearl, small and mottled as a current.
A fetish for yore, when ladies sat by
wayside while side burned men in frippery
whispered an ear-shaped shall. Gay buyers,
This is a proper woo, a very proper woo, with
societal promises of velvet crushed cossets
and a lock of Anglophine hair as keepside,
when joy, now ineluctable as waltz, was
momentary surrender and not a holiday
reminder. Here here, for those who pang
for manners, who will by code fan gnats
from a sylph’s bosom, yet dare not touch
Her pomegranate lips&emdash;use it sparingly,
this phrase’s hoary delicacy may fray with
slattern use: Come all, for this mint:
May I have this dance!
The bidding will start at once.
From Cathy Park Hong, Dance Dance Revolution (2007) (p. 90)
Tip o' the hat to thistleingrey for the quote and then, more recently, the link to the quote.
Subject line from Faithfully Dangerous by Over the Rhine.
It's hard for me to understand and expound upon why I like dancing so much and why I seem to gravitate toward the period dancing that (thank goodness) is available in my area, but I think this quote manages to describe it fairly well:
The Auctioneer’s Woo:
First up is a mint, a classic:
May I have this dance: a phrase for thy empire
waisted who know the finickeries and fineries
of a pearl, small and mottled as a current.
A fetish for yore, when ladies sat by
wayside while side burned men in frippery
whispered an ear-shaped shall. Gay buyers,
This is a proper woo, a very proper woo, with
societal promises of velvet crushed cossets
and a lock of Anglophine hair as keepside,
when joy, now ineluctable as waltz, was
momentary surrender and not a holiday
reminder. Here here, for those who pang
for manners, who will by code fan gnats
from a sylph’s bosom, yet dare not touch
Her pomegranate lips&emdash;use it sparingly,
this phrase’s hoary delicacy may fray with
slattern use: Come all, for this mint:
May I have this dance!
The bidding will start at once.
From Cathy Park Hong, Dance Dance Revolution (2007) (p. 90)
Tip o' the hat to thistleingrey for the quote and then, more recently, the link to the quote.
Subject line from Faithfully Dangerous by Over the Rhine.