Love is a Fire

Category: Poem

This poem was written by my friend Terry Barker.

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When I was a kid
I thought that love was like
a bonfire on the beach
at Camp Elphinstone in 1938.

Ardent and fierce it was,
like Athena in battle dress
on the dusty plains of Troy,
so vivid she hurt your mortal eyes
but you couldn’t look away.

When I was forty
I thought that love was like that beach fire
after the kids had gone to bed,
gone all quiet and steady,
and the camp counselors
declared their love in hushed tones
and promised to be faithful,
each the Hero and Leander of summer camps.

(Would I swim the Hellespont for you?
You bet!)

But now I think that love
is all those fires burned down
to a bed of comfortable embers.
I remember the hot bright fire songs
you once sang
and I sing them to you once more,
for to love someone is to learn their songs
and sing them to them
when they have forgotten.

Now, love, put your hand in these ashes
and feel them still warm and alive.



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