Light up that fire

This is a short poem I had fun with. It started out on a serious note, but then I couldn’t help adding my brand of humor to its ending.

After my poem I put a quote from Leonard Cohen’s Better. Perfect illustration of how I feel about my own writing.

Light up that fire
By Ada Ireland

 

You said you wanted me to burn for love
And I thought you meant it the way some poets do:
Let love’s light shine through me
And brighten up your world and everything in it.

Then I saw the pyre you built for me
And my girlish, romantic notions vanished:
You didn’t want me to shine,
You wanted me to be consumed.

I won’t come out of this alive.
There’s no possible way to survive your fire.
Is that why you told me
The legend of the phoenix?

Now I see you watching me,
Wondering … what is greater,
My fear of getting hurt,
Or my love for you and trust?

Oh, bloody foolish heart,
I never really had a choice, did I?
Well, light up that fire, love,
I’m ready for it.

P.S. May I take an aspirin first,
Or, better yet, a much stronger pain killer?

Here is the quote from Leonard Cohen’s Better.

…
better than poetry
is my poetry
which refers
to everything
that is beautiful and
dignified, but is
neither of these itself.

– Leonard Cohen, Better

My poems start out from the need to express emotions and thoughts that I sometimes feel overwhelmed by. They are too intense to be contained in my heart or my mind, so I try to let them out in writing. My words never measure up to my emotions though. But that’s the beauty of being an unpublished author and owning a barely read blog: I don’t have to meet anyone’s expectations. I can just have fun with words.