He Thanks His Woodpile
The wood of the madrone burns with a flame at once
lavender and mossy green, a color you sometimes see in a sari.
Oak burns with a peppery smell.
For a really hot fire, use bark.
You can crack your stove with bark.
All winter long I make wood stews:
Poem to stove to woodpile to stove to
typewriter. Woodpile. Stove.
and can’t stop peeking at it!
can’t stop opening up the door!
can’t stop giggling at it
“Shack Simple”
crazy as Han Shan as
Wittgenstein in his German hut, as
all the others ever were and are
………………. Ancient Order of the Fire Gigglers
who walked away from it, finally,
kicked the habit, finally, of Self, of
man-hooked Man
………………. ( which is not, at last, estrangement )
by Lew Welch
from Ring of Bone
Grey Fox Press, 1960