Touching Fire

Britta Akerley

I am drawn to its brilliant light.

The heat wraps around me, it sends me chills

The invitation is difficult to resist.

The warmth engulfs my body,

And comforts my soul.

As I close a gap between us,

the comfort spreads through each limb

The feeling intensifies

The heat is ferocious

It burns, I feel pain.

But am I the  one to blame?

I should know that fire is unpredictable.

So why is fire so irresistible?

 

The three confessional poets that made an impression on me with this project were Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton.  They each told told a lot of their personal lives, and inner emotions through their poetry.  I also noticed how they used illusions, and wrote about past figures, or well-known people.  They used circumstances and different actions to illustrate exactly how they felt.   I tried to use this idea, and illustrate an emotion that I feel, using fire as a metaphor.  I also tried to stay within the guidelines of a conceit poem, because their is more to confessional poetry than the "confession," and the form is very important.