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My Chest A Forest Fire

from Call & Response by Dale C. Fredrickson, Poet

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lyrics

Anxiety woke me
in the dark hours
before morning
raw wounds
buried fears and
dormant dreams
are kindling within me
sparks
smoking
snapping.

Anxiety woke me
in the dark hours
before morning.
Why must I carry this branding scar?
Grief is just love that blisters on the inside, she sighed.
Bursting pain is the beginning of healing, he consoled.
Everything rising goes through the fires of resistance, she insisted.

Anxiety woke me
in the dark hours
before morning
my chest a forest fire
burning
churning
smoldering.
We are fired into life with a madness that comes from the gods, Plato warned.
I couldn’t bear the anguish so I double knotted my shoes and ran.
I erupted with a dragon’s fury as fresh air provoked my chest-flame
Fumes of pain spewing into the air and within me rising again
Can anything ease this restless wildfire? I cried.

I saw the shimmering stars and my legs stopped pumping.
In the mountain sky, the stars quieted me.
Speckled across the dark horizon, stars sparkling.
The flickering stillness pulled me close
flying spheres of fire spoke to my aching.
Aren’t we all burning diamonds passing? I prayed.

Distant stars and human hearts
not so different
are they?
Stars and hearts
thermodynamic
skyrocketing
then fading

in the dark hours
before morning,
I awoke.
through blazing constellations
could God be saying?
“Planets are made by stars exploding.
On the other side of a black hole
is a universe expanding.
Surrender to the mystery
You’re becoming
something new.
Some fires can only be consumed.”

credits

from Call & Response, released September 24, 2016

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all rights reserved

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about

Dale Carl Fredrickson Denver, Colorado

Dale is a poet from Denver, Colorado. He’d like to inspire the entire world but finds that inspiring himself and his family and friends is work enough. He writes and speaks about beauty and misery and his favorite story is the one about how love surprises us in the end. He fails a lot. On his best days, he lives by Samuel Beckett’s motto, “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” ... more

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