Time is a dancer

INTRO

Time is a dancer
Who slips with seamless grace
From breath to heavy breath
skin dewed with sweat, hands and feet in synchronicity
Casting a drumming, living heartbeat
Moving to the rhythm of an unheard sound

ACT 1: TIME AS CREATION

Time is a mother
Who gifts us with the creation
of her world, our world, that is the ever-becoming
With a quiet that betrays no effort
Unfolding the potential of the future into the real of the present
Making it new yet known for us to wield 

Time is a lover
Whose eyes I caught reflected in the corner mirror
the intersection of spaces
We held our gaze, we held our breath
For a second – Or was it a century?
With time it’s hard to tell

the space between us never too small
the time together never too long
we stared at the clock, wishing it fixed
so we could have more time, less space, with us

we watched as the lines of our lives
traced arcing curves
Once parallel, now converged, threading to one
twisting, winding, circling a common locus, a common focus, a common us

and here in this place and in this moment we find ourselves
a circle drawn through space to define
a horizon stretching to infinity
containing all the promises of what we could be, of what we will be

Where does our time come from
and where does it go?
What gave us this gift, and takes it away?
All we grasp are questions.

ACT 2: TIME AS THE UNKNOWN

Time is a thief
Who robs potential
Who takes away the chance
The hope, the fear
The magic of what could be
And gives it all back in equal measure

Time is a puzzle
Who we know better than ourselves
Yet cannot contain in words
Who unites with space yet stands apart
Who brings chaos from order
and refuses to yield

with cleverness we can skip to the future
faster than we should
but the past is lost to us
and if the ghosts of our memories fade, then gone forever

it’s only through time that love can grow
it’s only through time that the could be becomes is
yet we cannot hold tight to the line of time
but only let it slip and savor what we’re given

We see disorder grow around us
is this what causes time?
We weave together our senses to craft our minds
is this what causes time?

Einstein gifted us the measure of the cosmos
is this what causes time?
The universe expands with every passing day
is this what causes time?

ACT 3: TIME AS RENEWAL

Time is a knife
That prunes the leaves of possibilities
Spanning the breadth of an infinite future
Without cause or effect Into a single branch
That becomes, choice by choice
The story of our lives

Time is a fire
That takes our moment, our moments,
Of joy and pain regardless, the self that we call our now
And burns it to the past
Leaving us to cling to memory’s grey ash
And the green growth of anticipation’s hopeful promise

we are forced to move through time
backs bent to the past
the future before us no matter where we set our eyes
better to step into it than to let it come and pass

the stars burn then dim
the celestial host gives way to silence
the cosmos finds an ancient cold
but in those quiet spaces new sparks find light

time brought two threads together
and it too will fray them
every love a tragedy, that always comes too soon
every love a beauty, with whispers of forever

but what is the measure of this time that we have?
is it in the hands of a clock? the setting of every sun?
Or is it the ever-changing now,
Each one as long as we wish to hold it in our hearts?

OUTRO

Time is an old friend
Who awaited with bated breath before the moment of our birth
And held us close in our grief
And laughed in our joy
Who will embrace our bones and watch over as they turn to dust
And scatter to the earth, the sky, the stars

Watch the film here.