“Fire” by Judy Sorum Brown.

Fire

What makes a fire burn
is space between the logs,
a breathing space.
Too much of a good thing,
too many logs
packed in too tight
can douse the flames
almost as surely
as a pail of water would.
So building fires
requires attention
to the spaces in between,
as much as the wood.

When we are able to build
open spaces
in the same way
we have learned
to pile on logs,
then we can see how
it is fuel, and absence of fuel
together, that make fire possible.

Then we can watch the fire leap and play,
burn down and then flame up
in unexpected ways.

We only need to lay a log
lightly from time to time.
A fire
grows
simply because the space is there,
with openings
in which the flame
that knows just how it wants to burn
can find its way.