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 

• Nutting by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent’s Narrow Room by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• November 1813 by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• November, 1806 by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• My Heart Leaps Up by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Mutability by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Most Sweet it is by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Minstrels by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Michael Angelo In Reply To The Passage Upon His Staute Of Sleeping Night by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Michael: A Pastoral Poem by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Methought I Saw The Footsteps Of A Throne by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Memory by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Memorials Of A Tour Of Scotland, 1803 VI. Glen-Almain, Or, The Narrow Glen by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Memorials Of A Tour In Scotland, by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Memorials Of A Tour In Scotland 1814 I. Suggested By A Beautiful Ruin Upon One Of The Islands Of Lo by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Memorials Of A Tour In Scotland, 1803 by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Memorials Of A Tour In Scotland, 1803 XIV. Fly, Some Kind Haringer, To Grasmere-Dale by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Memorials Of A Tour In Scotland, 1803 XII. Yarrow Unvisited by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Memorials Of A Tour In Scotland, 1803 XII. Sonnet Composed At —- Castle by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Memorials Of A Tour In Scotland, 1803 X. Rob Roy’s Grave by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth

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