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 

• A Channel Passage by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• 1914 V: The Soldier by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• 1914 IV: The Dead by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• 1914 III: The Dead by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• 1914 II: Safety by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• 1914 I: Peace by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• When Day Is Done by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• When and Why by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Vocation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Untimely Leave by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Twelve O’Clock by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Threshold by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Wicked Postman by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Unheeded Pageant by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Source by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Sailor by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Recall by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Rainy Day by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Lotus by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Little Big Man by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore

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