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 French Revolution as it appeared to Enthusiasts by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• The French Army In Russia, 1812-13 by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• The French And the Spanish Guerillas by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• The Fountain by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• The Forsaken by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• The Force Of Prayer, Or, The Founding Of Bolton, A Tradition by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• The Farmer Of Tilsbury Vale by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• The Fairest, Brightest, Hues Of Ether Fade by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• The Emigrant Mother by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• The Eagle and the Dove by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• The Danish Boy by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• The Cottager To Her Infant by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• The Complaint Of A Forsaken Indian Woman by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• The Childless Father by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• The Brothers by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• The Birth Of Love by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• The Affliction Of Margaret by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Surprised By Joy by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Stray Pleasures by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth

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