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 

• Yarrow Revisited by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Written With A Slate Pencil On A Stone, On The Side Of The Mountain Of Black Comb by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Written Upon A Blank Leaf In “The Complete Angler.” by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Written In Very Early Youth by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Written in March by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Written in London. September, 1802 by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Written In Germany On One Of The Coldest Days Of The Century by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Written In A Blank Leaf Of Macpherson’s Ossian by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• With Ships the Sea was Sprinkled Far and Nigh by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• With How Sad Steps, O Moon, Thou Climb’st the Sky by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Who Fancied What A Pretty Sight by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Where Lies The Land To Which Yon Ship Must Go? by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• When To The Attractions Of The Busy World by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• “When I Have Borne In Memory” by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Weak Is The Will Of Man, His Judgement Blind by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Water-Fowl Observed Frequently Over The Lakes Of Rydal And Grasmere by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Waldenses by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• View From The Top Of Black Comb by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Vernal Ode by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Vaudracour And Julia by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth

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