Dancing The Dream

Published-Released: 1992
Read The Book: Here
Written By: Michael Jackson
Summary: The book contains 28 essays and reflections, 17 poems, 84 color and black and white photographs, and 20 pieces of other artists artwork. Michael writes on topics such as creating his dance and music, children, religion, life, love, and autobiographical reflections.

Dance Of Life

I cannot escape the moon. Its soft beams push aside the curtains at night. I don’t even have to see it – a cool blue energy falls across my bed and I am up. I race down the dark hall and swing open the door, not to leave home but to go back to it. “Moon, I’m here!” I shout. “Good,” she replies. “Now give us a little dance.” But my body has started moving long before she says anything. When did it start? I can’t remember – my body has always been moving. Since childhood I have reacted to the moon this way, as her favorite lunatic, and not just hers. The stars draw me near, close enough so that I see through their twinkling act. They’re dancing too; doing a soft molecular jiggle that makes my carbon atoms jump in time.

With my arms flung wide, I head for the sea, which brings out another dance in me. Moon dancing is slow inside, and soft as blue shadows on the lawn. When the surf booms, I hear the heart of the earth, and the tempo picks up. I feel the dolphins leaping in the white foam, trying to fly, and almost flying when the waves curl high to the heavens. Their tails leave arcs of light as plankton glow in the waves. A school of minnows rise up, flashing silver in the moonlight like a new constellation. “Ah!” the sea says. “Now we’re gathering a crowd.”

I run along the beach, catching waves with one foot and dodging them with the other. I hear faint popping sounds – a hundred panicky sand crabs are ducking into their holes, just in case. But I’m racing now, sometimes on my toes, sometimes running flat-out. I throw my head back and a swirling nebula says, “Fast now, twirl!” Grinning, ducking my head for balance, I start to spin as wildly as I can. This is my favorite dance, because it contains a secret. The faster I twirl, the more I am still inside. My dance is all motion without, all silence within. As much as I love to make music, it’s the unheard music that never dies. And silence is my real dance, though it never moves. It stands aside, my choreographer of grace, and blesses each finger and toe.

I have forgotten the moon now and the sea and the dolphins, but I am in their joy more than ever. As far away as a star, as near as a grain of sand, the presence rises, shimmering with light. I could be in it forever; it is so loving and warm. But touch it once, and the light shoots forth from stillness. It quivers and thrills me, and I know my fate is to show others that this silence, this light, this blessing is my dance. I take this gift only to give it again. “Quick, give!” says the light.

As never before, I try to obey, inventing new steps, new gestures of joy. All at once I sense were I am, running back up the hill. The light in my bedroom is on. Seeing it brings me back down. I begin to feel my pounding heart, the drowsiness in my arms, the warm blood in my legs. My cells want to dance slower. “Can we walk a little?” they ask. “It’s been kind of wild.” “Sure.” I laugh, slowing to an easy amble.

I turn the doorknob, panting lightly, glad to be tired. Crawling back into bed, I remember something that I always wonder at. They say that some of the stars that you see overhead aren’t really there. Their light takes millions of years to reach us, and all we are doing is looking into the past, into a bygone moment when those stars could still shine. “So what does a star do after it quits shining?” I ask myself. “Maybe it dies.” “Oh, no,” a voice in my head says. “A star can never die. It just turns into a smile and melts back into the cosmic music, the dance of life.” I like that thought, the last one that I have before my eyes close. With a smile, I melt back into the music myself.

Written by Michael Jackson, from Dancing The Dream

MoonWalk

Published-Released: 1988
Read The Book: Here
Written By: Michael Jackson
Summary: In ‘Moonwalk’, Michael talks for the first time about his life, from his early Jackson 5 days, through the making of his albums , Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad. He touches on some of the most prominent rumours that have surrounded his career. The book contains many never-before-seen photographs from the Jackson family archives, as well as photos taken of Michael throughout his lengthy career, and artwork drawn by Michael himself. The book was a USA best seller.

I’ve always wanted to be able to tell stories, you know, stories that came from my soul. I’d like to sit by a fire and tell people stories – make them see pictures, make them cry and laugh, take them anywhere emotionally with something as deceptively simple as words. I’d like to tell tales to move their souls and transform them. I’ve always wanted to be able to do that. Imagine how the great writers must feel, knowing they have that power. I sometimes feel I could do it. It’s something I’d like to develop. In a way, songwriting uses the same skills, creates the emotional highs and lows, but the story is a sketch. It’s quicksilver. There are very few books written on the art of storytelling, how to grip listeners, how to get a group of People together and amuse them. No costumes, no makeup, no nothing, just you and your voice, and your powerful ability to take them anywhere, to transform their lives, if only for minutes.

Written by Michael Jackson, from Moonwalk