The Dance Poem by Suzanne Hayasaki

This is about more than a donut and a jar,
Or a sandwich dripping jam
Or a ripe slice of melon
Inviting the eye to take a bite.

This is a dance
Choreographed
Practiced
Perfected

Before the lights go down
And the house quiets
And the spectacle begins
There has been thinking
There has been design
There has been life

Taken in
Wondered at
Condensed into
A single moment
Amplified by light
Interpreted with lines
Crosshatched on a scrap of paper.

But the dance itself is spontaneous.
When brush hits board and slides
When pink collides with purple
It's alchemy!
It's magic!
It's art!

The donut rests as lightly as fried air
Against its partner, the stolid Ball jar.
The PB&J balances like a ballerina on its lip.
But the background dances like a chorus.

The jar may be the headliner
It may be what we think we've come to see
But it is the shadows that writhe
The colors that tap and flash like jazz hands
That make the forms seem to pulse
And shimmer with some inner electricity

This is the gift of the artist.
This is his life force distilled
Drop by drop
Pigment next to pigment
Line overcrossing line
Shadows and highlights
Radical backgrounds

Reminding us that it is we who project
What we choose to see
Onto a neutral world.

Choose beauty.