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Posts Tagged ‘wildfire’

In the Quiet After

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on August 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »


 
 
I would never have invited it into my heart,
but it came, a wildfire, burning down
every single thing I thought I knew
about love. There were no wings
that appeared in the ash. Not all
fallen things learn to fly. But
the aftermath was the first time
I was still enough for long enough
to hear a peace that thrums
through everything. I do not pretend
to know how it works, but neither
can I pretend to not know it is here.
Even in the char. And, I suspect,
even in the flame.

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In a Time of Many Wildfires

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on July 11, 2025| 2 Comments »


 
 
Geranium leaves
covered in fine white ash—
how many ghosts of tall pine trees
visit today in my garden—
and still, with such delicacy
the new flowers open.

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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.

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Waking Up on October 7

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


 
 
From six hundred miles away,
the smoke arrives to fill the air here
and I wake to the scent of burning,
wake to the haze of what was once
tree and weed and home and flesh.
I cannot fathom the stories that enter me
with every breath.
Let the ears do what the nose does—
be sensitive to stories beyond this room,
beyond this canyon, this region, this nation.
There are so many ways we burn.
I want to listen beyond words,
listen the way the heart can
only when its walls are down.
I want to listen to the world
the way the nose takes in the news
of the distant Bighorn Mountains,
how it wakes me up and scrapes me out,
lighting a fire in me, wildly aware
of how vast the world is,
filled with terror and courage.
I can make the world so small sometimes,
hearing only the story of me.
But today on the wind,
I can’t not know how connected we are.
Though it isn’t easy, though it frightens me,
this is how I want to listen.

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But No Hiding

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on June 13, 2020| 5 Comments »

It is the job

of the wildfire

to crave ignition,

to seek more fuel,

to turn at the whim

of the wind.

The wildfire’s job

is to burn

whatever it meets,

to incite it to flame,

to not care what it chars

how it ashes.

I want to not see it

as it leaps and claims,

want to not smell it

as it fills my lungs,

becomes me,

want to not notice

the part of me

ready to burn.

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