Fire of Imaginary Origin
We lit a bonfire
of lies on the earth
where we burned
not vanities
but sanities,
not tree parts
but peace, hearts,
flesh and bone,
blood and stone;
and whatever we learned
as planets were turned
we watched
fall to ash, and were glad that it burned.
Winter Solstice
December, 2019
It is with sadness and great gratitude that I post to Marian's Imagine prompt at the vanishing
Image: The Ladder of Fire, © Rene Magrite, 1939. Fair Use
Image of fire, author unknown, via internet. Fair Use
So relevant, so now ~~~ yet ageless, forever. I will not forget this.
ReplyDeleteOften I think of our species Fall as Promethean, that old, that consequential, that devastating. First it was just an edge against the night, but as we spread it it became roast beast, language, love, whiskey, berserker against the gods and planet devourer. And we watched enthralled, "glad that it burned." Yikes. What a wicked Yule log.
ReplyDeleteYes, that is certainly what we are doing. Vanities... gosh I was so much younger and brighter and full of hope when I read that book. So many are glad for the burning that I think it's impossible to stop it.
ReplyDeleteI am full of gratitude, too. . Joy, that I have stood up my writing next to yours is an honor. Love xoxox M.
You have said it as well as it can humanly be said. I remember reading in the 70's that Russia was laughing at North America, saying capitalism would bring us down. They were right. It is a voracious monster that can never be sated. I always love seeing your name pop up in the linky, kiddo.
ReplyDeleteLies are the plague of our time and nothing could cleanse them better than fire. I love the rhyming in this, and the compactness of the piece. No one else writes like you do, Joy. I always feel lucky to have the chance to read your work because it feeds that place in me that is forever in love with poetry.
ReplyDeleteI think Toads has one more go-round, on Monday. I think they are doing Play It Again and I know Kerry will be hosting.
Correction: Toads has 3 more to go: today (Margaret), Friday (Sherry) and next Monday (Kerry).
DeleteIt would be nice if we could garner even the slightest positive, warming outcome from those flames, but...no.
ReplyDeleteI do not know if I am sane or insane but I am not glad for this fire.
ReplyDeleteThis fire seems to always be there... if we only would cease to crave the false warmth of that ember.
ReplyDeleteIt's like a saying in Swedish... it's like peeing in bed, it feels warm to begin with... but only for a short time.
I really like the way this is written. The repetition of sounds is masterful.
ReplyDeletewas Zeus right to punish Prometheus for bringing humans fire?
ReplyDeleteI too am grateful for having 'met' you via RT. Yours is a voice of vision, memory, sere clarity, yet also justice, wonderment, and (dare I say it) Joy. Which can be said of so many who graced the pads.
To the turning toward the sun as we pass Solstice, and may the wicked burn along with the righteous (to use terms that I mostly abandoned long ago.)
~