.

.

Ballerina

The balanced ballerina on her toe
was poised with perfect posture—back and chest.
The crowd, in silent awe, enjoyed the show,
as she maintained a flawless arabesque.

The dancer twirled to glide a sweet chassé
with ease and elegance of mastery.
This student of the classical ballet
showed discipline as strict as chastity.

Her graceful, structured arms in port de bras,
each rising plié follows rhythmic falls—
a choreography without a flaw.
She bowed to standing hails and “Bravo” calls.

The judges wrote their scores upon a sheet
like grading cut and clarity of jewels.
Each move has names and standards they must meet,
the dance was thus critiqued against the rules.

A new performer pranced upon the stage.
The music played and, much to their surprise,
her awkward sequences profaned the page—
a charlatan in tarlatan disguise.

Her pirouettes were like a wobbly top
on clumsy feet that clopped just like a clown’s.
Her lines, disorganized as scribble-slop.
The grand jeté had barely left the ground.

The judges stopped the show and took the chance
to question the imposter for an answer:
“What is this folly that you claim is dance?”
—“It is ballet, and I’m a ballet dancer.

“Instructors from my school believe that I
will be a laureate among the greats
and say I needn’t be restricted by
what your old institution stipulates.

“I am a ballerina who is free
and my unfettered feet have graced this floor.
The dancer should decide what dance should be,
and I deserve the judge’s highest score.”

The senior judge then spoke, “With due respect,
your effort is commendable, but still,
you stumble on this stage and then expect
that we should think it took surpassing skill?

“It’s like the so-called writers of our time,
who steal the poet’s monicker, but worse,
they’re ignorant of meter, form, and rhyme
and chop their prose to serve it up as verse.

“You splash the paint then pass it off as art,
and even if we turned it upside down,
we’re as confused as from the very start,
while you stand proudly in your painter’s gown.

“What we just saw, my dear, was not ballet;
to call it such offends this fine arena.
I speak for all the artists when I say:
please do not call yourself a ballerina.”

.

.

Michael Pietrack is a writer, businessman, and former baseball player who resides in Colorado.  


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51 Responses

  1. Sally Cook

    The wry comment of this excellent poem is timely. Today art seems dead. Artists bear a heavy burden indeed. Lines have been blurred, and the asininity of what we are offered parallels “wokeness” in its childish refusal to accept any logical structure.

    It all comes down to a great misunderstanding of the concept of experiment.

    What is an experiment anyway? Nothing but a new idea. Like a new pair of shoes, you can try them, but if they pinch, it is your responsibility to trash them. Even artists must learn to think, and experiment is one way. But it is only one way. The idea that one experiment must be followed for 100 years or more is insane. But that is where we find ourselves today.
    Thank you for opening the topic — it is something we are all thinking of.

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      Sally, I get your points and they are well taken. I am a fan of your work!

      Reply
  2. Russel Winick

    I agree with Sally. This poem is terrific, and applies perfectly to much of what we see today.

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      I appreciate the comment Russel. Every time I see your name, I do a double take. I have a dear friend named Randy Wyrick, and somehow when I see your name, my brain wants to see his.

      Reply
  3. Paul Freeman

    A well written poem, but perhaps you could have stopped at the girl being bad at dancing rather than making the poem weirdly political vehicle for slagging off free verse.

    Thanks for the read, Michael.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Paul, cut the crap. This poem isn’t political, and it’s not about free verse, it’s about the beauty of form and discipline, with ballet as a metaphor for poetry. Good free verse uses all the poet’s tools except end-rhyme and meter; most “poetry” we see these days is not just free verse, but woke, angsty prose with random line breaks.

      But I think you know all this and just want to make trouble. You do have a history of trolling people in the comments sections.

      Reply
      • Michael Pietrack

        Joshua, thank you for coming to my defense, but all are entitled to their opinions. I hope all is well.

    • Michael Pietrack

      Thank you Paul. I was happy to read that you thought it was well-written.

      Reply
    • Paul Buchheit

      Paul, thanks for being an independent thinker in a group that seems to be overly influenced by a few intolerant and insulting voices. I’ve had enough.

      Reply
      • Joshua C. Frank

        You say that as if it were somehow not intolerant and insulting to imply that anyone who doesn’t agree with the liberal party lines is not an independent thinker. It actually takes more independent thinking to hold conservative ideas in an increasingly liberal culture. Not all of us who reject liberalism were raised with conservative ideas; some of us were raised liberal and decided as adults that liberalism is erroneous on many levels.

        I find it interesting that liberals call themselves and each other “independent thinkers” when they’re just part of a movement that’s been picking up speed for hundreds of years and has now effectively taken over Western culture. How is that more independent than what we believe?

      • Michael Pietrack

        Paul B, I’m sorry this poem has triggered such a negative response. We certainly don’t want you to leave the group. If I’ve done anything to offend, please accept my apology.

  4. Monika Cooper

    How strange: I just wrote a poem with “unfettered feet” in it but in my poem they were a good thing.

    “Discipline as strict as chastity.” There’s nothing lewd or contortionist about Classical ballet: it’s modest, formal, haughty. It has all the defining marks of Christendom about it. It’s an exquisite expression of femininity, full of that beauty the lecherous dream not of. Ballerinas, carousels, unicorns of purity and majesty — offered to the imaginations of little girls by a civilization that loves them, for what they are in themselves.

    Huge contrast with most “modern dance” and your poem suggests all the parallels in other art forms.

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      I wrote this at my daughter’s ballet class, as the teacher said, “If it’s not ballet, it’s not ballet!”

      Reply
  5. Roy Eugene Peterson

    As I began reading the poem, I wondered if you were referring to other “modern” art forms that I call Jurassic! You rewarded my thoughts by hitting the nail on the head. This is so befitting of what has become the amorphous scatological version of prose posing as poetry! Way to go!

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      Thank you Roy! I had to look up scatological, and as I read the definition I literally LOL’d.

      Reply
  6. Mary Gardner

    Bravo, Michael! I felt like I was watching the competition
    Your recitation was excellent, too, especially that you pitched your voice higher when quoting the unfortunate dancer whose instructors cheated her. The senior judge’s reaction, albeit unkind, expresses what I’ve been thinking for decades.

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      Thank you Mary, I had a great time doing the recording. The more I get into poetry, the more I see it as an auditory medium. Please keep in touch!

      Reply
  7. Joseph S. Salemi

    This is extremely well constructed, and the use of proper ballet diction to describe the dance motions is impressive, being expertly fitted into the meter.

    It’s certainly not “a political vehicle for slagging off free verse.” It is an effective satirical piece on the complete collapse of artistic discipline in today’s world of posturing imbeciles and narcissistic phonies.

    There’s nothing “political” in pointing out that art schools in all fields today encourage a mindless disregard of proper training in favor of “unfettered feet.” And this holds true for the poetry world, where the word “feet” is metaphorical.

    Reply
    • Monika Cooper

      Keats wrote a sonnet with the metaphorical meaning of “feet”: “If by dull rhymes our English must be chain’d.” As I read the scheme of his sonnet, if a poem has meter at all, it has feet. If it also rhymes, its feet are fettered. Keats’s sonnet would challenge us to make those fetters as graceful and organic as possible. (He was, to be sure, a Romantic, but didn’t lack discipline.)

      I think the fetters on the feet of this “Ballerina” are sweetly done, like criss-crossed ribbons. The French words woven in contribute to their freshness.

      Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      I am a really big admirer of yours, so this comment means a great deal to me. It is rewarding for me to be so well comprehended by the likes of you.

      Reply
  8. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Michael, I love this finely crafted poem for many reasons. The adept rhyme and meter. The vivid and vibrant linguistic pictures you paint. The grin-inducing alliteration; “clumsy feet that clopped just like a clown’s” creates a marvelous image. But most of all, the message on today’s pursuit and definition of excellence. You have managed to make an extremely serious point on how not to do it while showing us exactly how it’s done… very clever indeed. All I see in this poem is truth and beauty. Thank you, Michael.

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      Remember this line from Legacy:

      He blushed and thought this was unworthy praise,
      So underserving even of her gaze.
      To stand next to Cielle and Vallenbee,
      He felt a fraud in such grand company.

      I know how Abel felt. Thanks, Cielle!

      Reply
  9. Norma Pain

    A very enjoyable poem Michael, with a true message on what I and many others are seeing in poetry and art. If everyone did everything in mediocre fashion, and no one excelled at anything, how boring and uninteresting life would become. Thank you for this clever poem.

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      Thank you Norma, I’ve enjoyed digging into your poems as well. Keep up the great work!

      Reply
  10. Mike Bryant

    Michael, excellent form and rhyme, an excellent story and an excellent reading of the work all amount to an excellent piece of art. I haven’t been able to discern politics in this poem, weird or otherwise. I suppose that standards, in ballet, poetry or anything else, are now considered some form of insurrection against wokeness.

    “Once you accept the idea that you should give in to things that make no sense because other people do those things and you want to appear reasonable, you are on a path towards mediocrity.” – Eva Moskowitz

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      Mike, I really appreciate these kind words. I was not intending to be political at all. I see many “poems” posted on social media that are just paragraphs chopped to bits. I can’t help but thinking, that’s not a poem…it’s a beautiful sentence written by someone with an “enter” key malfunction.

      Reply
  11. Joshua C. Frank

    Michael, I love this! I think I speak for a lot of people here when I say I’d like to see more poems from you here. I especially love the images you’ve shown here:

    Her pirouettes were like a wobbly top
    on clumsy feet that clopped just like a clown’s.
    Her lines, disorganized as scribble-slop.
    The grand jeté had barely left the ground.

    Sadly, if the ballet world were anything like the art world and the poetry world, the clumsy ballerina would be judged to be superior, especially if she were a “person of color” (who came up with that ridiculous phrase anyway?) or “queer” or a man calling himself a woman. I guess when you can call chopped-up prose “verse” (to use one of your lines), anything goes.

    As for Mr. Freeman’s uncalled-for and inaccurate comment, I replied to it directly so I wouldn’t have to address it here. He does this to Susan all the time, so if he’s criticizing you too, that’s an honor.

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      Thank you again, and I’ve appreciated our budding friendship. Keep in touch.

      Reply
  12. Cynthia Erlandson

    Delightful, and a very apt comparison. I, too, love the line “and chop their prose to serve it up as verse.”

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      Thank you for taking the time to read the poem and leave a comment. Every kind word is a source of encouragement.

      Reply
  13. ABB

    Glad to see this poem is getting a lot of appreciative comments. A lot of great lines here. Think my favorite is “a charlatan in tarlatan disguise.” As much as I enjoyed the poem itself, though, Michael, your dramatic reading is masterful. The British accent perfectly corresponds to the satirical message. I was smiling the whole time I was listening to it.

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      Ah, I am glad you enjoyed it. You are the master of satire, so garnering your praise is quite a feather in the ole cap. I enjoyed your satirical Legends of Liberty that you published. I have it on my bookshelf. I’d recommend it to anyone in the group. It can be found on Amazon.

      Reply
      • Karen Shackles

        I just looked this up on Amazon. I was sold with Mr. Sales’ comment, “A great gift for all poetry connoisseurs, parents raising child geniuses in need of sound moral development, and screen-staring adults who have fallen into a state of half-literacy and forgotten their past.” Thank you for the suggestion.

  14. James Sale

    A wonderful reading, Michael, and I think your English accent is better than mine! A fine poem and the comment that you were ‘slagging off free verse’ is wrong. Yes, you are critiquing free verse but what the comment fails to understand is that without the critique, all you have is a pretty poem that is entirely descriptive; with the critique you have a poem that is beautifully descriptive AND seriously extends its range of interest and of relevance to the modern world. Well done.

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      Thank you, James. All types of dance has a name and its rightful place, but we wouldn’t call hip-hop ‘ballet’. In the same way, we can’t lump classical poetry adhering to meter, form, and rhyme into the same category to those who don’t hold fast to those constructs. You’re right, I was not ‘slagging off free verse’ but at the same time, I cannot be led to believe that free verse takes the same level of mastery. I realize I am preaching to the choir. I never imagined this poem would cause such a ruckus.

      Reply
      • Joshua C. Frank

        Michael, don’t worry about it. You did nothing wrong. That’s just how liberals are. You say, “I prefer mangoes to oranges,” and they say, “So basically what you’re saying is you hate oranges? You also failed to mention pineapples, bananas, and grapefruits. Educate yourself. I’m literally shaking.” (To quote a meme floating around online.) Egalitarianism is foundational to their worldview; anyone who questions anything egalitarian can expect to be at the other end of their wrath. I know how it is; I used to be liberal myself.

        It’s also typical that they join a group called the Society of Classical Poets and then go off on people who dare to suggest that classical poetry is inherently superior to free verse, which is in turn inherently superior to prose with random line breaks (I think a distinction needs to be made between the two).

        As an aside, the French Revolution’s motto was “Liberty, equality, and fraternity,” and liberals affirm the same motto, but because people (and things) are naturally not equal, equality is inherently at odds with their other two goals. That’s why that revolution ended up being as violent as it was.

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Michael, the friction was initiated by someone who took advantage of your mildly humorous criticism of free-verse practice to stir up trouble by calling it a “political vehicle for slagging off free verse.”

        That is not at all what it was, and he knew it. But he wanted to create some controversy, as part of a generalized agenda to undermine this website. A like-minded colleague jumped in to support him by calling us “intolerant” and “insulting,” and dramatically calling it quits.

        I’ve seen this game played by left-liberals at many on-line venues and workshops, as a tried-and-true method for making conservatives uncomfortable and eventually colonizing the place for “diversity” and “inclusion.”

        The game doesn’t work here, because a great many of us know what’s going on, and are not afraid to skewer it. This really pisses off left-liberals.

        You don’t have to apologize for anything, Michael. Apologies only encourage these types. They see it as weakness.

  15. Karen Shackles

    You have cleverly described the current trend to sacrifice the discipline of practice that leads to excellence on the altar of inclusivity.

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      Karen, I love reading your poetry, so keep up the great work! Happy Memorial Season!

      Reply
      • Karen Shackles

        Thank you! Your encouragement and support are exceedingly meaningful and appreciated.

  16. Patricia Allred

    Michael.. what a wondrous write. I have seen this so many times. It’s disheartening.
    Poetry that is not poetry.and comments supporting it as such. I am new at this.I know I am far from being a ballerina in poetry.

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      You are quite the ballerina; I’ve read your work. But it seems we are are chasing that perfect-10 performance that we know lives within us. Thank you for the kind reply.

      Reply
      • Patricia

        Perchance, Michael, it might be best chasing the Perfect ten, than assuming, we are it!
        By the way, you and James, have magnicent British voices to carry your works to us, thank you.

        Patricia

  17. C.B. Anderson

    The only thing wrong with comments stating that this poem was well crafted, Michael, is that they should have said: exquisitely crafted. Your eventual comparison of dance technique to poetic technique was inevitable and quite apropos. We are at the beginning of a new dark age, and it is the duty of anyone who understands this to speak out. If you ever cave in to the Libtards, then you are lost.

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      I must admit, I grimaced when I read “the only thing wrong with…” and then read the rest through squinting eyes. Thanks for leaving me with a smile. I know you aren’t superfluous with praise, so I will take this and run with it!

      Reply
  18. Mark Stellinga

    Michael, we’re kindred spirits, you and I, and your top-notch recital was a wonderful treat. Great job all the way around! This piece echoes what I’ve been reiterating off and on for 60 years. In a somewhat similar vein, I thought you might appreciate this little doo-dad:

    The Creed of the Underground Press

    ‘Til all – from whom the call to fight
    for truth and freedom come –
    and all who risk for what is right,
    are slain…or rendered dumb…

    ‘Til all – by whom the words of war
    are loud and clearly said –
    are bound by chains to speak no more,
    or lie, with brethren, dead…

    Though fettered tight to walls of stone,
    entombed by cold and damp,
    with comrades held, or, chained alone,
    in dark and dreary camp,

    We must endure – and cling to hope,
    though ‘chance’ is wearing thin,
    and print what ire with whom we cope –
    with ink and feathered pen.

    Despite the blood the rapier spills
    from soldiers, pure of thought –
    the toll we take – with patriots’ quills –
    defies the ‘all for naught’,

    And, standing strong, when faced with fear –
    alone or side by side –
    yeah – though we write with blood or tear – we must…until we’ve died!

    I’m going to hunt for other examples of your work, expecting to be thoroughly delighted with whatever I find. Excellent piece and audio – 🙂

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      Mark, being aligned with you in anyway is high praise. When I was reading your poem, I heard the echoes of Kipling’s “If”. I am happy to hear that you enjoyed “Ballerina” and that the audio added to it. If you’d like to see more of what I’ve done, it is best to check out Legacy: The Saga Begins, which is a long narrative poem that some are calling an epic fable. I would love your feedback on it.

      Reply
  19. Margaret Coats

    Looks good, Michael, and from my experience could have been just as effective about dance alone, although I consider it a great idea to bring in verse. I studied modern dance in school, where we were encouraged to be “free” and make up our own programs. The difficulty was, we spent so much time (in groups of three or four!) talking over our creativity that nothing of any worth was ever decided on, much less performed to perfection. My daughter, on the other hand, at ballet school in Japan with a Russian-trained teacher, could place her foot flat on her head as part of ordinary practice. When we returned to the U.S., this was discouraged as unsafe!

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      It’s always so nice to hear from you. My three daughters are all in ballet, but only one seems to be a fish in water. So I do a lot of my writing as one of the parents who live at the studio. I’m sure you can relate.

      Reply
  20. Jeff Eardley

    Michael, a super poem and a powerful comment on the waves of mediocrity that are washing all over us. I despair that our youngsters in the UK will never get to experience the great classics of music, literature, art and dance. Our great children’s works are being re-written so as not to offend, and religious art is being removed from the walls of our universities for no reason that I can think of. Thank you for a most interesting read.

    Reply
    • Michael Pietrack

      Thank you, Jeff. It is a shame what is going on. It’s happening here is the US as well. It reminds me of Ecclesiastes 7:9.

      Reply

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