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 what is lost in translation.

Robert Frost (1875-1963) American Poet.

WinterFrost’s Poems (95)

Title Comments
Title Comments
Winter Dreams 0
Beach 0
Dreaming Red 0
Thats that 6
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
A nonconformist is born every minute 2
Clash 3
A Wake 3
Growing up politicized 5
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
Personal Kharybdis 0
Leaves 1
Made for Autumn 3
Ground Control 2
The old Hospital 3
Revulsion 6
Steppe 2
Early March and everywhere signs of Winter 2
Winter beach in Maine 4
Yellow Petals 1
Plague 6
On Lacking Ambition 5
Terminal Illness 2
church 5
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
A dreaded place 5
Nine square yards of Yellow gingham 0
Silly Hellen stuff 1
Cape Elizabeth 4
Castaway 3
In Goshen on rt. 10 1
Nemesis 6
Camped out 6
The Winter Field 3
Her face rings a bell 7
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
lly New England
5
Where I would go 6
Death of a Clock 9
Puzzle 7
Dead leaf and black crow 4
Filled with Wolves 2
A Cold Stove 4
Summer Cars 0
Twain said never argue with a fool 2
The Swamp Maple 3
Winter is just a soft breath away 0
Five Minutes 3
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