Burning Oneself Out

A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)

We can look into the stove tonight

as into a mirror, yes,

the serrated log, the yellow-blue gaseous core

the crimson-flittered grey ash, yes.

I know inside my eyelids

and underneath my skin

Time takes hold of us like a draft

upward, drawing at the heats

in the belly, in the brain

You told me of setting your hand

into the print of a long-dead Indian

and for a moment, I knew that hand,

that print, that rock,

the sun producing powerful dreams

A word can do this

or, as tonight, the mirror of the fire

of my mind, burning as if it could go on

burning itself, burning down

feeding on everything

till there is nothing in life

that has not fed that fire

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Poems in English 

• To Sea by Martin Zakovski by Poetry In English
• To Dorothy by Marvin Bell by Poetry In English
• The Dreadful Has Already Happened by Mark Strand by Poetry In English
• The Dragon and The Unicorn by Mary Etta Metcalf by Poetry In English
• They Thought Her Crazy by Mary Etta Metcalf by Poetry In English
• These Green-Going-to-Yellow by Marvin Bell by Poetry In English
• The Last Wolf by Mary TallMountain by Poetry In English
• The Homeless Man by Mary TallMountain by Poetry In English
• The Story Of Our Lives by Mark Strand by Poetry In English
• Telescope by Mark R Slaughter by Poetry In English
• The Self and the Mulberry by Marvin Bell by Poetry In English
• Sunflowers by Martin Willitts Jr. by Poetry In English
• The Room by Mark Strand by Poetry In English
• Speaking the Language of Deer by Martin Willitts Jr. by Poetry In English
• The River Has Its Memories by Mary Etta Metcalf by Poetry In English
• Some Say by Mark Miller by Poetry In English
• The River by Mark Olynyk by Poetry In English
• So You Say by Mark Strand by Poetry In English
• Slag by Mark Base by Poetry In English
• The Remains by Mark Strand by Poetry In English

More external links (open in a new tab):

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Search engines:

Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)

Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.

Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees

Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

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