"What is to give light must endure burning." --Viktor Frankl

“I have wasted years of my life
agonizing about the fires
I started when I thought that to be strong you must be flame-retardant”

--Amanda Palmer, Ampersand

“When you learn to love yourself
You will dissolve all the stones that are cast
Now you will learn to burn the icing sky
To melt the waxen mask
I said to have the gift of true release
This is a peace that will take you higher
Oh I come to you with my offering
I bring you strange fire”

--Indigo Girls, Strange Fire



24 July 2011

The Nymph’s Reply to the Writing Prompt


Circa 2008. I wrote this while participating in an online writing group I'd started with a few friends


“Imagine what advice one of your favorite deceased authors would offer you.”

The dead don’t speak
to me.

Sherrie channels May Sarton
and prompts me
to tune into my muse.

So I fiddle with my receiver,
battle the static.

For a moment I feel
like I am at Faith Lutheran again,
surrounded by the stained glass,
the thrumming organ.

I want to merge with the pastor’s words;
I want them to penetrate, to pierce my side.

Instead

I am at home writing
at midnight,
pilfering phrases from my friends
and adjectives from my husband, an atheist
who feels more real
to me
than Jesus.

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