"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. 

"Paper Matches" by Paulette Jiles

Paulette Jiles was born in Salem, Missouri on April 4, 1943. She won the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry.

“Paper Matches"

My aunts washed dishes while the uncles
squirted each other on the lawn with
garden hoses. Why are we in here,
I said, and they are out there?
That’s the way it is,
said Aunt Hetty, the shriveled-up one.
I have the rages that small animals have,
being small, being animal.
Written on me was a message,
“At Your Service,”
like a book of paper matches.
One by one we were taken out
and struck.
We come bearing supper,
our heads on fire.

This poem's speaker can be defined as any women, mostly younger. Mainly this poem is from the view point of a young girl, who feels as that it is unfair that her "aunts washed dishes while the uncles squirted each other." It is the girl’s first step to realizing that women are seen as housewives, not to have fun, and constantly "At Your Service." A while back, women were only housewives; they did not have jobs except to take care of the children, the house, and the husband. The speaker asks “Why are we in here,…and they are out there?” asking why are we doing chores, while they are having fun? But the aunt just answers because “that’s the way it is,” it is the way it always has been. The women are meant to do the chores; the women clean the house, make sure warm, good food is on the table when the husband comes home, the children have their homework done, and then after dinner the dishes are washed and dried. Now, more women are gaining jobs, and there are even dads that stay home. Feminism is on the rise because many women want to turn away from the housewives idea of women to have equal rights for women and men. The younger girl is showing that this revelation comes across for all women at some point. They realized what society expects of them, where they want to be the cook, the maid, the housewife or not.