Elsa's Quest - The Story Below the Story. FROM EPHEMERAL TO ETERNAL.

A butterfly flies by. Ephemeral beauty.

A firefly sparks its tiny spark in the night. The tiniest brief flash.

When I think of the universe and its billions of years, so clearly we are all ephemeral.

But within that brief blink of life, so many of us strive to make a longer mark, to leave some legacy, a footprint in the snow, in the sand.

I write this because I have a strong drive to try to give my creations, most of all at least a few of my poems, and maybe an idea or two, a bit of time. I’d like at least a few to be known, at least by a few people, in a hundred years or more.

I could go over what I’ve done so far to achieve this. That’s not pulling me.

My question. Where do I go from here?

I will write first about Emily Dickinson and Eva.

Next time, my next steps.
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Emily Dickinson. From what I remember, she bound her poems into little booklets and stored them in a trunk. They were discovered after she died. This isn’t generally a great formula for lasting success. In her case, she was part of a small group in Concord that became very influential in American thought life. Thoreau’s Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854), comes to mind.

I’m not part of such a group. And anyway, it doesn’t attract me to trust that there will be someone who, after my lifetime, will find a way of bringing my writings to the world.
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Then there is Eva, who had a lifelong passion for dance, and for whom dance was the center of her life. At age 12, she was willing to leave her family so she could study dance.

I met Eva - Eva Von Gencsy - when she was 75. She had been a goddess in the Montreal dance scene, founder of Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal. Thirty-five years later . . . times had changed. She was giving ballet jazz classes at a couple of sports centers, which is how I came to meet and appreciate her.

Her passion for dance had not diminished.

Several years later, she invited me to her 80th birthday party. I felt honored to be invited, one of the very few people not from the dance world. My gift was a poem for her - a poem which touched on living so that “through us flows forever.”

I also wrote a poem about her, which she became willing to record seven years later. She was also finally willing, at 87, to be filmed, dancing, no longer young.

I see Eva’s life, in the stretch of eternity, as both so very brief and yet more than ephemeral.

The gift to Eva:

one is not
forever young
time does not stand still
it passes on

but one can live
with open hands
with open heart
and through us flows
forever

one can be
forever on
the passing moment
movement

and at this moment
this magic moment
there is
forever

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The poem about Eva:

Below, Eva with Pierre, a protegé and lifelong friend:

https://elsasemporium.com/i-love-dance.html

EVA DANCES

I live to dance
love to dance
yearn to dance
my life long

I give to dance
my life long

I take from dance
make from dance
create dance
my life long

I dance

I dance my life
a chance this gift
as long as I live
it lifts me
enchants me

dance
I thank you
all my life long

I dance

a chance this gift
as long as I live

I love dance

I live to dance
love to dance
yearn to dance
my life long

strong this gift
I long to give
dance

alive this gift
not just mine this gift

I take from dance
I make dance

I give dance
I live dance

I dance

all my life long

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And what is next for me in my own quest for leaving something through which flows forever?

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ELSA’S QUEST - THE STORY & PAST POSTS:
elsaiselsa.substack.com/elsas-quest

ELSA’S QUEST - WEBSITE:
https://elsasquest.com
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Posted August 2, 2026