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Black stage
Hear me
Dancing shoes
Help me
Wooden floor
Tap me
Amazing light
Light up my
Dancing spot


Crunching biscuits
Won't you hear me?
Orange squash
Help me
And teasing girls
Dance with me
And so lead me to the end!

Dancing spot
Shine down on me
So may you
Help me in
This dancing class

As the teacher
Dances on
So may I
Be the very best
In this dancing class

"Before the Dance" by Philip Brown came in from a school as part of a structured lesson in poetry writing. By that I mean that the teacher had provided the students with a kind of poetic blueprint, a series of guidelines and let the students complete the form according to his or her own imagination. Philip Brown created something honest as well as beautiful, while working within a fairly strict structure. This is a prayer that is said to o­neself before a dance performance begins, calling o­n all the bits of his surroundings, from the floor to his shoes to the orange squash that he drinks, to be his muses and help him do his very best. Hats off!