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 

• The Poor House by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Old Maid by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Nights Remember by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The New Moon by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Net by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Mother Of A Poet by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Metropolitan Tower by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Meeting by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Love That Goes A-Begging by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Look by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Long Hill by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Lights Of New York by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Lighted Window by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Lamp by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Kiss by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Kind Moon by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Inn Of Earth by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The India Wharf by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The House Of Dreams by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Heart’s House by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale

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