Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘fire’

This, Too, Is What I Was Born For

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 8, 2025| 10 Comments »


                  with a phrase from Augusta Kantra
 
 
To sit late at night by the small fire
my daughter has made using cedar wood
split by the man I married over thirty years ago.
To feel the good heat of it reach through
the thick muscles of my back, infusing
me with such honest contentment
I unfold in the warmth.
To feel grateful for this small constellation
of family, humbled again and again
by the tenderness we offer each other.
Is it everything, this whispery moment,
with its soft glow of enoughness,
this ease that arrives in me,
as quiet as evening, when I am able to honor
every wanted and every unbidden thing
that conspired to bring me here to this hearth
in winter’s dim light. And like a violet
that can’t help but open at the slightest warmth,
I fall in love again with this life.  

Read Full Post »

In the Bleak Midwinter

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 3, 2025| 6 Comments »


 
 
In the midst of cold,
past the fringes of darkness,
is this place of fire
where we huddle
at the edge of warmth
to relieve our chill
and regard each other’s faces
in the glow,
where we learn stories
of the shadows
and meet our own
darkness.
Loneliness is, perhaps,
believing there is no room
for us in the circle.
Belonging is knowing
every one of us
is the flame.

Read Full Post »

One Too Late

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on October 19, 2025| 4 Comments »

 
only after the blaze
has leapt its stone ring
procuring  a bucket of water
 

Read Full Post »

You belong to this world with

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on July 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »


 
 
its early morning thunderstorm
that wakes you with a clap,
this world of early morning rain
and dusty midday paths,
this world with plumes of wildfire
that fill the air by evening,
the valleys thickly choked with smoke,
the mountains disappearing.
You belong to this world of tinder.
Sometimes it hurts to belong.
You belong to the burning world of fear
as much as the world of song.
You most surely belong to music,
to this world of euphoric dancing
And as you dance, you smile,
dance as if it’s your calling.
They sing of constant sorrow.
You dance. The ash keeps falling.

Read Full Post »

One Reason to Show Up

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on June 6, 2025| 10 Comments »


 
 
the whole world is burning
and the only way to bring it water,
the bucket of you

Read Full Post »

Once grief was bonfire

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on September 4, 2024| 7 Comments »


 
consuming everything I touched.
Every surface. Every person.
Every minute, every thought.
Nothing went unlicked by flame.
Everything charred. Seared.
Scarred. Ash.
It scared and unmade me.
I’d never before
been so nothing.
Had never before lost
every wall, every line,
every idea, every mask.
Such a merciless,
astonishing teacher.
Tonight, grief is more a candle.
Sometimes, I feel the heat on my skin,
smell the acrid singe of my hair.
But for now, familiar with
its gentle light, I’m more attuned
to shadow, more at home in dark.
Now, this small flame of sorrow
reminds me who I am,
who I’ve loved, and
how I would not give up
a half Planck length of love.
Not that loss is easier, no,
but god help me, I’ve learned
it’s a gift to burn.

Read Full Post »

Making Peace with My Inner Fire Fighter

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 4, 2024| 22 Comments »


 
She’s always ready to run to the rescue,
trained in putting out housefires,
wildland fires, grease fires, electrical fires.
Explosions? She’s prepared to vent,
quench, flank and set up a collapse zone.
Child swallowed a ring?
She arrives in minutes.
Accident on the street? She’s pulling on
her uniform before the call is over.
She’s saved me thousands of times.
She’s always been like this—
keen to fix any problem. Capable. Strong.
I’m stunned by her abs, her biceps,
her focus as she goes where she’s needed.
Who could blame her for wanting
to put out this fire that’s been flaring
in me for almost three years.
Please, I say, don’t put it out.
It just needs to burn.
She eyes me strangely.
But it’s taking down whole structures,
she says. I nod.
Whole structures, I agree.
So much I knew is now ash.
But—she says, extinguisher in hand.
Please, I say. It’s okay if it all comes down.
I’m thinking of how much more I can see
as unnecessary things I’ve built submit.
It is in her to fix. To save. To make things better
in the way she knows how.
But she is learning to trust me in this
as I am learning to trust the wisdom of flame.
She shakes her head and walks away.
I watch as the fire continues to blaze.
 
 

Read Full Post »

You Ask How I Got These Scars

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on February 6, 2024| 7 Comments »

 
Standing too close to the fire—
not that I wanted to be burned,
just that it felt so good to be hot,
even when it was too much,
even when it was way too much

Read Full Post »

Tinder

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on January 8, 2024| 8 Comments »


 
Sometimes, long before the sun rises,
you whisper good morning,
and it’s as if you’ve built a small fire
in the hearth of predawn,
each syllable a small flame
leaping up in the dark,
a welcome kindling.
It takes so little to fill the room
with warmth, with light.

Read Full Post »

Hearth

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on February 13, 2023| 4 Comments »




A fireplace is made for flame.
Even when dark, empty, cold,
its purpose is unchanging.

It was made for flare, for flicker,
for blaze, for light; it was made
to cast warmth, to hold glow.

The soul is a kind of fireplace.
Love itself the flame.

Even in our chillest hour,
it’s clear what we are made for.

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »