Who By Fire
Maybe it’s the time of year to ask how your life is burning….to return to the fire, to examine the ash.
“Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.”
― Leonard Cohen
Who by fire?
Relentlessly Craving
by Julia Fiedorczuk
poem, poem be strong
like a shock wave, Grieg’s Concerto in A Minor
put down roots, find the source, bloom, bear fruit
come to life, poem, I need your blood
poem, poem be as perilously lovely
as the drunken woman in the painting by Munch
what counts are only the base colors, yellow, black, red
what counts is fire
there is a time for hope
and a time for despair
what counts is fire
if you have no flesh
you do not know love
nor do you know death
poem, poem be in the sun
in the eye of the world
in the turning of bread into motion
in the constant decay that is the condition of all synthesis
in the blood
fire, be
there is a time for hope
and a time for despair
what counts is fire and ice
poem, poem be like the dark night of the soul
Translations from the PolishBy Bill Johnston
{source: World Literature Today}
Who gets up early to discover
the moment the light begins?
What was whispered to the rose
to break it open last night
was whispered to my heart.
You’ve gotten drunk on so many kinds of wine.
Taste this. It won’t make you wild.
It’s fire.
Give up, if you don’t understand by this time that your living is firewood.
Set your life on fire.
Seek those who fan your flames.
The lamps are different,
But the Light is the same.
To change, a person must face the dragon of his appetites with another dragon, the life-energy of the soul.
-– Rumi
“I want more of this feeling – fire and wings.”
― Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight
All I know is that I want more of this feeling….
