Joyful Noise
(Racing at Ainstree)

The pleasure here is of motion
frozen for a flash--long enough
for us to touch, caress things
that usually pass too quickly, too powerfully,
too dangerously for such intimacy:

Can you touch the massy driving power
of that haunch? Can you stroke
the dusky perfection of furled
forelegs? Can you feel the fire
of the sinewy foreleg of the far horse?

This is a rarity: So much force
standing still for us, yet without losing
the grace of motion, without losing even
the future of up and over, pounding
hooves to a finish line,

flicker of victory, passing of the day,
of many days--that explosion back
into time that you foresee gem-clear
in the intent eye of a horse.

Dean Blehert

Last Updated: October 6, 2002