Poem “After the Fire”

I recently signed up to receive James Crews’ weekly newsletter. This poem was included in the welcome and confirmation note.

Let me endure whatever fires must

pass through here, must scorch my skin.

And if I have to feel the heat, let me

also trust that like the lodgepole pine,

the fire will open the parts of me

that are still closed tight, releasing seeds

I’ve been clinging to, hoarding for years.

Let me thrive in this new clearing

made at the center of my life, seeing now

how the necessary flames melted away

my resistance, revealing all that once

lay hidden, asleep inside me.

– James Crews