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 the door!
can’t stop giggling at it
“Shack Simple”
crazy as Han Shan as
Wittgenstein in his German hut, as
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 was not, at last, estrangement )
by Lew Welsh
from Ring of Bone
Grey Fox Press, 1979