While in close embrace dancing –
I felt her heart beating –
Gently, but out of time –
So I adjusted my breathing –
And made it sync with mine
02.16.15 – 02.18.15
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Copyright by Minh Tan on listed dated of completion.
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Notes to this poem…
I was blues dancing with a female on the night of Feb 16 when the event described happened. It was a bit of a shock, to be honest. I had danced close embrace (like hugging) with women before, but I had never notice the beating of a partner’s heart until this one. I don’t know if it’s rare to be able to do that, or if I had finally learned to let myself into the moment enough not to think about my dancing but just the connection. Whatever it was, it was a beautiful when body next to body, you can feel your partner’s heart beat.
Not surprisingly, her heart beat was not in time with the music. I mean, what are the chances one’s heart beat while dancing is not only the same tempo as the music, but also on beat? I couldn’t change either to match, of course, but I realized I had a heart beat as well, which I could change with my breathing to try and match. I was smaller than my partner so not surprisingly, my heart rate was a tad faster even as we made the same moves dancing. So what I did was just slowed down my breathing a bit till I felt my heart rate was clearly slower than hers, then tried breathing a bit more regularly to see if I could get my heart rate close to hers, and also on tempo. It wasn’t easy but for about a minute in that 4 minute song or so, I got it!
And what a magical feeling that was, dancing slowly to the blues with your eyes closed, heart beating together with my partner’s heart beat that I could also feel!
The O-series of poems are one stanza poems composed before I got onto writing haiku and tanka, and short poetry while in action or traveling by select means like plane or ferry. These poems are 3-9 lines long with at least one rhyming couplet, and not of the short forms just mentioned. For the sake of elegance, I just called the collection One.
Minh Tan's Old Poetry 
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