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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A few random poems:

External links

Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus

Talking Writing Monster’s Page –

Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh

Poems in English 

• The Birch-Tree at Loschwitz poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Straw in the Street poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Sonnet poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Sinfonia Eroica poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Run to Death poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Ralph to Mary poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Philosophy poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Out of Town poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• On the Wye in May poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• On the Threshold poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Oh, Is It Love? poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• New Love, New Life poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Magdalen poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• London Poets poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• London in July poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Lohengrin poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Last Words poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• June poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• In the Nower poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• In the Night poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

Doska or the Board – write anything

Search engines:

Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)

Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.

Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees

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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