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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• In A Light Time by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• I Won, You Lost by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• I Sing The Body Electric by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• How Much Earth by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• House Of Silence by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
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• Holding On by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Heaven by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Green Thumb by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Gin by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
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