A Cold Stove

4 Comments

A Cold Stove

I was consumed by memory
And a fair amount of discord

I dwelt on substances bright and fiery
But kept wending back to ashes I abhorred

I gathered up a poker and an old sack 
And knelt before the kitchen stove

So armed I confronted the pitch black
Stirring many a dead fire, I began to heave and hove

Soon I was pulling out soot and ash
Of fires long ago grown old

I, I thought of when I was rash
And of hot fires now turned cold

Still I thought
One must make room

As ash continued to be caught
From within the deep gloom

That is the difference I could find
Between the stove and heart

The limitless capacity of the mind
For fires and ashes after they depart

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ginga commented on A Cold Stove

12-04-2009

Winter, I always like poems that depict fires, ashes, pitch, logs, sparks. They warm the heart. I am sad that this stove is cold and you have penned a poem to its honor. Cool! ginga

bitchywitch commented on A Cold Stove

06-28-2009

only an artist could construct a great metaphor out of the mundane tasks of everyday life..especially in winter.

laydbak1 commented on A Cold Stove

06-26-2009

A sweet piece this... I enjoyed the calm circling, then that crisp light upon the surface to bring it together... very well done... A good read here...

tenderpoison commented on A Cold Stove

05-27-2009

wonderful allegory! I love the last stanza. You've summed up a universal human truth so succinctly and powerfully...our fires don't ever go all the way out...

Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does.

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) U.S. poet.

WinterFrost’s Poems (95)

Title Comments
Title Comments
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Beach 0
Dreaming Red 0
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Winter Rememberance 4
Shipwreck 2
Riding the Subway 2
Mulberry Street 3
White Picket Fence 2
To Hell with the Devil 5
Why 4
Why I never write about her 5
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Clash 3
A Wake 3
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Biblical Vermont and New Hampshire 6
Softly falling snow 14
Dead leaf and black crow 4
The Gloaming 2
Dead Soldiers 1
Orchard 2
Soft and well remembered days 1
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Made for Autumn 3
Ground Control 2
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Revulsion 6
Steppe 2
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Winter beach in Maine 4
Yellow Petals 1
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On Lacking Ambition 5
Terminal Illness 2
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Beatnik Bar 2
East of timbuktu 7
An Unwarranted Visitor 7
Teflon 3
Still 2
Distant Lamposts 1
Sugar Snow 3
Reality is such a coward 0
Ray 0
Charm 2
Winter 1
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Nine square yards of Yellow gingham 0
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Castaway 3
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Nemesis 6
Camped out 6
The Winter Field 3
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Terrorism 1
A grape 1
Yellow Petals 1
I was left to ponder 2
Autumnal Poetry Box 2
Distant Lamposts 0
Personal Kharybdis 1
Aloof 1
Ardence and Reserve 0
Oubliette 0
Zen Master 1
Unkind musings on a bad dinner party 2
Emily Walking Through Trees 10
Reflections 4
Ennui 3
FTL (Faster Than Light) 1
And they call me CRAZY 1
Quintessentia
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Where I would go 6
Death of a Clock 9
Puzzle 7
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Filled with Wolves 2
A Cold Stove 4
Summer Cars 0
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Winter is just a soft breath away 0
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Self Explanitory 4
The Winter Warrior 4
Jack Frost 3
Pumpkins on the Vine 4
I Opted for the Sociopath 3
Out of sight out of Mind 14
Glorious 3
Elysian Fields 7