NaPoWriMo Day 17: "The Fire's Sermon"

Today's NaPoWriMo prompt: "Today, I’d like you to challenge you to write a poem that similarly presents a scene from an unusual point of view. Perhaps you could write a poem that presents Sir Isaac Newton’s discovery from the perspective of the apple. Or the shootout at the OK Corral from the viewpoint of a passing vulture. Or maybe it could be something as everyday as a rainstorm, as experienced by a raindrop."

Today's PAD Challenge prompt: "For today’s prompt, write a reason poem. If this prompt seems unreasonable, just remember all the reasons you write poetry or enjoy cooking, dancing, singing, etc. Or provide a reasoned argument for your lack of reason. Only you know your reasons."

I added another poem to the heap I've already seen appearing at The New Verse News and elsewhere this week inspired by the Notre Dame fire -- though I ended up thinking along more Buddhist lines about it. Oops, I realize I forgot the part about presenting a scene -- although of course we all have the same scene in mind this week without my saying anything.

The Fire's Sermon

You love me if cold.

If hungry. If seeking to erase

what you no longer need.

You hate me if burning.

If scarred. If ravaged

by letting go.

You make me a symbol:

For you I am love. I am anger.

I am war. I am justice

that wipes the world clean,

I purify what you call a soul.

I am in all your gods.

For myself, I know no meaning.

I am combustion,

atoms rearranging themselves.

I am pyrolysis.

If a spark strikes, no more reason then

than why you breathe

then breathe again.

I exist, I cease.

Something is different after.

You look for reasons;

you mourn for change.

There are three things I know:

on this earth, I am impermanent.

I breathe the same air you do.

And nothing that you love

cannot be fuel.

             

--Draft by Anne Myles.  Please do not cite, copy, or quote without permission.