This is last piece of verse I shall post as part of the senses series, more as a completion than anything else. In case I get another howl about my targeted audience, I shall post it in the adult section for the moment , but again it is a vocabulary exercise and i will probably later turn it over into the For Kids category . There are perhaps some who will recognise some specialised choreographic terminology, quite deliberately used
Kinaesthesia
A different bodily assessment
Reach out for a burden, and feel your fingers grip
as you wind them round a handle, say ; make sure they do not slip.
Pause there for a moment, for your body to work like a crane,
a marvellous mechanical instrument, controlled by your clever brain.
Settle your balance on two firm feet, knowing your muscles' strength,
feel them take up that heavy load along your body's length.
There's tension in each movement, retracting or extending,
stretching out or pulling back, rising up or bending.
Now loose yourself of any weight till you feel as if you'll bounce
and walking becomes like dancing, why not let your body flounce?
Let it frisk and let it gambol, let it strut and spring and caper
or maybe float or glide just as light as tissue paper.
Don't let the force of gravity keep you tied down to the ground ,
don't drag your feet along but skip or leap or bound.
You can of course move heavily, using punch or slash or wring
but if wishing to stay lightsome, a tap or flick's the thing.
Just feel those muscles working and all the while you're proving
that your body's greatest pleasure is delight in simply moving .
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Written by fellpony (1603 comments posted) 18th June 2008 |
| A large topic to tackle, quite apart from the technical name. I wondered from the title if you were tackling tickling, but i see you aren't ... or that sense that joint surgery patients learn about (though perhaps not under its full name), proprioception. I liked the terminology you chose to use, and the "elastic" approach to metre works well for a spoken piece. |
Written by lovelysarah1984 (81 comments posted) 18th June 2008 |
I loved this! I love the use of so many different verbs, my favourite line being - "Let it frisk and let it gambol, let it strut and spring and caper"
Superb! Thanks for sharing that with us grown ups! |
Names !
Written by patterjack (1179 comments posted) 18th June 2008 |
Kinaesthesia is a bad enough ! Though I do have a liking for the idea of synaesthesia (I have seen some fascinating documentraries on it ) I would not dare to write more than the one rather awful verse i wrote back in 1946 ! and that was not anything like the senses verses.
Proprioception-- no thanks - I will keep my sense of my internal organs to myself -- bladder and borborygmus are too much inner secrets.
patterjack
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And by the way
Written by patterjack (1179 comments posted) 18th June 2008 |
Thanks for the elastic comment. Indeed , thanks for the entire comment! 
patterjack |
Irish ?
Written by patterjack (1179 comments posted) 18th June 2008 |
Thank you Sarah for your comment -- much appreciated .
When you quoted that line back at me , I suddenly realised that there must have been lurking in the back of my mind an old Irish song !
I am a devotee of the verb -- the driving force of any good English sentence .
patterjack |
Written by Phil (6688 comments posted) 18th June 2008 |
Enjoyed this - as would kids in the right context. There's a much overlooked 'science' when teaching sport to children; having them actually thinking about their bodies - their shape, how they move, where they tense up and relax etc. As well as an exercise in vocabulary, it could be used as an exercise into physical focus.
I hope all that makes sense!
Phil |
Written by mia_ms_kim (997 comments posted) 18th June 2008 |
Wow, pj. I haven't thought about such things before. This reminds me how under-appreciated "kinaesthesia" is as a bodily function. I didn't even know such a word existed. This was an eye-opener. It was delightful. I could feel the grip, the tension, the bounce, the weightlessness etc etc as I followed each line.
And I agree with Sarah. What a wonderful use of verbs!
This definitely is an educational piece in my opinion, perhaps older children and "big" children, too. A combination of English, science and PE.
Brilliant!
Mia  |
moving and grooving Mia !
Written by patterjack (1179 comments posted) 18th June 2008 |
Which was almost the title of the poem , but happily I changed my mind.
Thank you for your enthusiastic reception of it -- and you can't imagine how relieved I am to be finished with it . I thought of several approaches , but it is not an easy concept to express , so in the end I fell back on verb listing.
During my drama lecturing days I was able to use some of the choreographic words to develop some fascinating improvisations --a lot of fun for me simply as a watcher of the students at work , but I think and hope that it was fun for them as well .
Alas , my days now are more governed by wringing and groaning than gambling and grinning , but that's the inevitable way of it !
patterjack
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Written by Josie (2780 comments posted) 19th June 2008 |
| Brian, I'm trying to frisk and caper and do all those things, but at 67 something seems to be going quite wrong. I used to be a ballet dancer - once - in the distant past. I could do it all then, including tap dancing, acrobatics etc. I'm waiting for new stemcells at the moment. How are you doing? Well constructed poem with good range of vocabulary. Well done! |
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