Everything starts with fire, water, and air—and it may end with fire either by cremation or tragically by a wildfire. We have a love-hate relationship with it. We love to light bonfires, but we hate when a building catches fire. Fire could symbolize warmth and power, and it could mean danger and destruction. It is often a theme in literature, like “Dante’s Inferno” and “Slaughterhouse Five.” We light a cigarette, a campfire, burn someone in effigy, and chase monsters with lit torches. To quote the lyrics of Arthur Brown’s Fire: “Fire, to destroy all you’ve done/Fire, to end all you’ve become/Fire, I’ll feel your burn.”
Wildfires in poetics:
One hot lover:
An unfortunate pyromaniac:
A fiery flash fiction:
Fire taketh away:
The first responders in wildfires:
Bonfire by Mark Tulin
We light this fire
with planks of driftwood
on cool Ventura nights
hearing the ocean roar
like our youthful passion
that will never fizzle out,
a desire that will last
for an eternity
The bonfire lights up the sky
with resurrecting fire,
turning old ideas
into hopeful beginnings
Another log onto the fire,
to build up our spirits
to purify our bodies,
our minds set free.
Some Things About the Crow—Mark Tulin
Two more popular books by Mark Tulin:
Doodle of the week:
Reader Comment of the Week:
Thank you, Viraji Ogodapola, a fellow poet at Medium.com, for your comment on my poem Mother Saying Kaddish for Her Dead Father: “Deep and penetrative, Mark - very touching!"
Read of the Week:
Writer May More gives her humorous take on a great work of art in Woman Missing at Gentlemen and Nudes County Picnic.