Appropriately, with today/yesterday (the exact date is always a bit patchy) being Beltane/Walpurgist Night/May Day, the spring fire festival, I thought I would post Fire, the third installment of my Element poems. This one was started a little while ago but I grew unsure of where it was going, then last week returning to it it came together quite nicely.
(The photograph below is of the May Queen and the Green Man at the Edinburgh Beltane celebrations put on by the Beltane Fire Society, an event that looks to be quite a spectacle and one that I've promised myself I will one day attend.)





FIRE

In this melancholy twilight
Mist draws in like an aqueous spectre.
A dank phantom,
Pallid and ghastly.
I stand submerged in these shadowy waters.
Drenched indifferent,
Extinguished,
Heavy with dew.

The tall Oak quivers
Foretasting the unease of a fevered sleep.

The great firmament sparks
And roars like an ocean
Delivering from above
In white-hot illumination
A searing fiery angel,
A guide to my emancipation.
A dazzling emblazonment,
Of Ignited inspiration.

The flames flitter and fail
Doused in this dour air.
But ignited passion
In burning embers glow,
And able thawed fingers
Steadily feed kindling
Into the dragon’s jaw
Until again those wild dreams flicker hot
And old bones crumble to ash.