"Dancing with God" by Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn has written fifteen collections of poetry. He won many awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Dancing with God
by Stephen Dunn
At first the surprise
of being singled out,
the dance floor crowded
and me not looking my best,
a too-often-worn dress
and the man with me
a budding casualty
of one repetition too much.
God just touched his shoulder
and he left.
Then the confirmation
of an old guess:
God was a wild god,
into the most mindless rock,
but graceful,
looking—this excited me—
like no one I could love,
cruel mouth, eyes evocative
of promises unkept.
I never danced better, freer,
as if dancing were my way
of saying how easily
I could be with him, or apart.
When the music turned slow
God held me close
and I felt for a moment
I’d mistaken him,
that he was Death
and this the famous embrace
before the lights go out.
But God kept holding me
and I him
until the band stopped
and I stood looking at a figure
I wanted to slap
or forgive for something,
I couldn’t decide which.
He left then, no thanks,
no sign
that he’d felt anything
more than an earthly moment
with someone who could’ve been
anyone on earth.
To this day I don’t know why
I thought he was God,
though it was clear
there was no going back
to the man who brought me,
nice man
with whom I’d slept
and grown tired,
who danced wrong,
who never again
could do anything right.

The girl is at a dance with a not suitable date and her “too-often-worn dress” she believes to “not looking her best.” We may not be looking our best when God comes to us. We can be beaten down, in a tough of our life waiting for the peak to come. God comes in and saves that day or according to the poem comes in and asks her to dance. Being with God, many become freer and can find happiness with Him. Even as wild as the music was, God was still there dancing along just like God will hold on in the wild, crazy parts of someone’s life. “When the music turned slow God held me close” it’s when God holds people even when their life is slow. Even when He leaves after dancing, God still cares. Mistaking God for death, the girl felt at peace with it, like she was in heaven with God at that point. The metaphor shows that God is always around at all points in our life and He can come to us in our need to help bring us to Him. At the end of the poem, the girl cannot go back to the man she can with because he is of little relevance to her life, now that God has danced with her. This poem is like when God finds us in our low points-although he can find us in our high as well- we feel him with us, we can see that he is there and wants us. God helps us find who we are meant to be with and watch as people come and go in our lives for a reason.