‘But everywhere I look I see fire; that which isn’t flint is tinder and the whole world sparks and flames.’
—Annie Dillard, ‘On foot in Virginia’s Roanoke Valley’
‘I have found the dominant of my range and state—
Love, O my God, to call thee Love and Love’
—Gerard Manley Hopkins, ‘Let Me Be to Thee’
It is hearth glow now,
fire for the long eve
flaring occasionally with the spark.
It still has light to give.
It may yet spawn raging blazes
But it pops in hidden crevices of wood
it bides the time
it endures
is not consumed or exhausted.
It wants only tending
this tinder
this tender
this tent and testament.
O what monstrous act was this of yours
to set me loose with a container of fire?
—Alex Joyner
Heartlands 
4 responses to “Tinder Mercies – Poetry”
I’m not sure why, but the last question of your poem reminds me of another quote from Annie Dillard:
“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return. ”
Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone To Talk
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Love that quote. And it’s no surprise to me since I believe Annie is my spirit guide. I’m convinced the fire is our essence and it’s a volatile grace full of danger and potential.
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[…] Tinder Mercies – Poetry […]
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[…] I look I see fire,” she claims as she walks through Virginia’s Roanoke Valley. “That which isn’t flint is tinder and the whole world sparks and […]
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