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A poem is a series of brief fires.The colors of autumn’s maple and aspen treescondensed into word images.Yellow, red and blue above the match I holdand growing in the fireplace when wood catchesor in the burner of the gas stove.And beyond all words, the urban firesjumping from rooftop to rooftop,and forest fires leaping tree to tree.The fires of war’s intentional deathburning innocent bodies and souls.(Is this what Baldwin meant by “The fire next time”?)Wait!We light candles against the darkand for celebrating the miracles of lightand for remembering dead ones.We see the fire of miracles like burning bushesand other visions, the fireworksof finding the way.We see the fire of the sun and other stars,fire impossible to imagineunless as small and fast as a comet,or reflected off the moon or lakesomething that can’t be rakedunlike the gold and red of autumn leaves.Yesterday the sky was afirewith Northern Lights—a marvelso far south of the magnetic north.
Over the aspens and maples,
the green and red of aurora borealis
reminds us of a poem.
This poem is so full of colour - the fire, the northern lights, the leaf colour. Beautiful.
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