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 

• Slant by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Poem For People That Are Understandably Too Busy To Read Poetry by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Named by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Landscape At The End Of The Century by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• I Come Home Wanting To Touch Everyone by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Essay On The Personal by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Biography In The First Person by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• At The Smithville Methodist Church by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Allegory Of The Cave by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• The White Peacock by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Quality of Courage by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Innovator by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Hemp by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The General Public by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Fiddling Wood by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Drug-Shop, or, Endymion in Edmonstoun by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The City Revisited by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Breaking Point by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• Talk by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• Road and Hills by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét

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

 

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