The match lights.
The newspaper sparks immediately —
the flame matching the intensity
of the ink passionately spread through
a dozen stories — and dissolves into ash.
The infant flame crawls onto twigs.
I stand mesmerized by this transmutation:
words once poured over by anxious writers
now spilled into a fire as kindling, sweat
burning into memories I’ve already forgotten.
The winds shift.
I rearrange the sticks to assist their demise,
wondering how many revisions — how many
editors’ notes — were born before the news
fanned out to a half awake audience.
The flames leap from twigs to logs.
I stare transfixed at the graceful movement
of the blaze (so gorgeous as it spasms
on this log, then another) effortlessly
transforming timber into trifling confetti.
I find it poetic.
My stomach screams an idea, an ephemeral epiphany
I must immediately share for art’s sake,
enthusiastically published on pulp
and eventually catalyst for another fire.
Phillip Knight Scott | © 2019
Written for V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #69: Kindle and Ragtag Daily Prompt: Scream.
Often Mumbled Musings 
Stunning. “…words once poured over by anxious writers now spilled into a fire as kindling, sweat burning into memories I’ve already forgotten.”
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Thanks so much, Brooke 🙂
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What an inspired write! All we are, create, eventually turns to ash. As I read, I thought of my first novel, written for my grade 8 English teacher – months of sleepless nights, toiling – accolades in the end – and then I burnt it, watching the pages and words transmute.
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Thanks so much, VJ! It’s all perspective …
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Yes, it is! Reader’s bring new meaning I find.
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all ash, all ash again
I especially appreciate how this built itself toward nothingness, toward a whole new revision. Well done.
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Thanks, Ron!
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I love this. Having lived in the Maine woods over 30 years back in the not
too distant past, we had plenty of brushfires to clear trails and such. I’ve been a writer all my life, and I am ashamed to say none of these things ever occurred to me. But they surely will now! Well done.
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Thanks so much 🙂
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Powerful and exquisite writing, as always–my fave pick: “words once poured over by anxious writers
now spilled into a fire as kindling, sweat
burning into memories I’ve already forgotten”…
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Thanks 😊
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Welcome.
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Exquisite flow of words and thoughts.
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Thanks so much!
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I love the isolation of certain lines, drawing focus. There was something quite moving about the line ‘The Winds Shift’.
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Thanks so much 🙂
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Pleasure
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