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 Princess And The Goblins by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Other by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Other Two by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Night Dances by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Net-Menders by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Munich Mannequins by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Moon And The Yew Tree by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Manor Garden by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Lady And The Earthenware Head by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Jailer by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Hermit At Outermost House by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Hanging Man by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Great Carbuncle by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Goring by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Glutton by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Ghost’s Leavetaking by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Fearful by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Eye-Mote by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Everlasting Monday by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Dream by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath

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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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