Walking & Dancing

"Walking, like prose, has a definite aim. [...]movements in walking...
are abolished and, as it were, absorbed by the accomplishment of the
act, by the attainment of the goal.

The dance is quite another matter. If it pursues an object, it is only
an ideal object, a state, an enchantment, the phantom of a flower,
a smile--which forms at last on the face of the one who summoned it
from empty space.

[...]however different the dance may be from walking and utilitarian
movement, it uses the same organs, the same bones, the same muscles,
only differently co-ordinated and aroused.

This is why one should guard against reasoning about poetry as one
does about prose.


-Paul Valery

Caketrain 08 (AKA the Alabama Issue) is available for pre-order here. Eight measly dollars magically exchanged over interconnected computers will result in a lovely surprise in your mailbox in November.