Artifacts Poetry, Ray Hinman

Fire Shadow

"The fire is blessed,so is the shadow of fire,
we behold the vision of one in the other."
These were the words Heraclitus dreamed when youth
stained his bed with tears.

Old age gave him wisdom. "if the shadow of fire
is bleseed, the image of fire is holy, for the without
the image of fire we would burn;this is the fire
that kindles all elements."
But the nearness of death drove him mad:
"In stupiidity some have said, 'The sun is the center
of everything,' but even the mouth of a worm
is greater than the sun, for we work by the sun's grace,
but the worm takes away our toil!"