The Flame

I wrote this poem in 1985, 17 years old. It compares the soul to a flame. Just as a flame needs darkness to shine brightly, so is the soul transformed by love, desire, passion and pain. Read also Contemplation (1984), which touches upon the dark night of the soul.

My soul –

Ever like the flame

Of a burning candle

So brilliant, bright

Glorious in the surrounding

Darkness –

My darkness nurtures my soul

The pain melts and

Is transformed into the flame –

And the flame melts into the glow.

Deceptive glow –

Guides the wandering

But consumes itself.

Life –

So sudden, so living

And yet death looms

In the swiftness of a wind

Or a lover’s breath!

How wonderful it would be

To burn forever

And immortalise one’s glow

In another’s eyes!

Even as the flame

Rejoices in its moments

Of greatness

Leaping shadows mock it

To join them.

When the flame is blown into

Memory

The shadows flee with it

Into the unknown.

For what is the flame

Without the darkness

And what is my soul

Without its eternal reality?

Vanita Shukla Hork, 1985

If you liked this poem, you will enjoy my book Soul (Memories from another Lifetime).  Available on Amazon, free on KindleUnlimited. Please do leave a review.