Dance the Poetry

March marks the beginning of autumn in the southern hemisphere. A season that sees the leaves turn ombré with the warmth of earthy tones and gradually begin their dance of descent. Landing, eventually, upon the earth—where they will be crunched underfoot by gleeful children and nonchalant passersby alike.

Autumn is nothing if not a poetic season of the year. It is the one with the crisp mornings and the magical light. The one that signals the dying of the summer, but also the endless possibilities of winter hibernation—an opportunity to rest and reset. 

This month we invite you to embrace the winds of change and move in unison. To transmit the collective consciousness. For, as Virginia Woolf has said, ‘masterpieces are not single solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, Of thinking by the body of the people.’

Where does poetry reside within that body? And how can it be expressed through the particular lilt of a limb? Perhaps it is through the same dance, spiralling on through the generations. 

Particles of a real and rhythmic whole, we reflect both our ancestors and our descendants, creating stanzas collectively in a woven tapestry of soil and stars.

This month we delve into Ocean Vuong’s powerful collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds, which sheds a new light on those stars above. We look at the poetry of nature as it is expressed in what we eat and drink. And photographer Hōne Naera-Scott takes us on a visual discovery of light and shade.

We dance in defiance, in order to uncage the heart. And we offer a gentle reminder not to let them tame you. 

Rosie Dalton