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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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 

• Content Written Off Ithica poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• Chi È? poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• By The Fates poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• Burns’s Statue At Irvine poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• “Beyond the pasture’s withered bents ” poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• Before, Behind, And Beyond poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• “Because I failed, shall I asperse the End” poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• At Vaucluse poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• At The Lattice poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• At The Gate Of The Convent poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• At Shelley’s House At Lerici poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• At Shelley’s Grave poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• At San Giovanni Del Lago poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• A Woman’s Apology poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• A Wintry Picture poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• A Wintry Picture (II) poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• A Wild Rose poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• A Voice From The West poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• A Twilight Song poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• A Tusculan Question poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

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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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