The poem opens with a plea, "Forgive the dancer," and then shows why forgiveness might be needed. Each stanza sets a violent event from the news, such as nuclear tests, a school shooting and a racist killing, beside the ordinary preparations of a dancer: tying a skirt, lacing shoes, stretching, listening to the drum. The repeated "while" makes both things happen at once, so the dancer's calm feels almost uncomfortable.
The speaker seems to feel both guilt and defiance. Asking forgiveness suggests she knows that dancing could look like turning away from suffering. Yet the dancer isn't careless. She tunes her "heart and breath" to the music, as if making herself fully present. In the last stanza the rain is "bitter" and burns the trees, but she still leaps and opens her arms to "all the wonder in the world." The mood is sorrowful but hopeful, holding grief and joy together and suggesting that beauty still deserves to be celebrated.