Friday, October 15, 2010

From Aola's Blog - I loved it so much I wanted to put it here too

I AM NOT NEEDED THERE … FIRE, GIVE ME FIRE!



I am not needed.


There are enough scholars arguing both or all sides of everything.

(I always laugh when I hear about “equal time” as though there are only two sides. There are thousands of sides to everything.)

I am not needed there.


There are enough etymologists.

There are others who can use the beautiful words like nosology, tautology, eschatology, exegesis, and omphalos—(not to mention syzygy) even though only five-thousand people worldwide know what those words really mean.

I am not needed there.


There are ever so many beautiful singers, whose voices are sweet or clear or powerful.
And though I love to feel them play my bones,
I am not needed there either.


There are more than enough people busy stirring the pot, taking the high road, knowing all the short cuts,
calling more cooks to supervise the broth, adding more coals to the fire.
There are more than enough who spin evolutionary ideas, who add more to the heap, who fill everything that needs filling, and who are emptying all the things that they believe are in dire need of emptying.

There are enough rolling stones, enough birds in the bushes (though far fewer in the hand).
There are enough of all these.

I am not needed there.



But down at the back of the house at dark, leaning over the great stone sharpening wheel, my old broken shoes fitted to the rusted pedals,
I can make my legs go forever.
I can make my legs go forever.
I can make my legs go forever.


I press the steel blade of every dull knife—not hard against hard, but tender against hard, just right—against this spinning stone. I make fly everywhere in the night, showers of sparks, the little fires that catch often enough, and just right
on various dry old tears,
and old useless memories
stacked as crisp papers in some forlorn attic
under the hairline soffits or in the cornices of the heart.


And this fire sets ablaze whatever is needing warmth…
This fire sets ablaze
And burns away whatever is no longer needed.
Here I have found my place.
Here, I have found my place.
Here I am needed

At this great stone wheel that cannot turn by itself, but only by the bones and blood of the hands and the legs
that can hold to it,
that can hold to it,
that can hold to it.


Working long, tiring, resting,
Working long, tiring, resting,
Working long, tiring, resting,
coming back once more.

Fire! Give me fire!
More! Fire!

Again!
Again!

… Showers of sparks, everywhere!