I went into the shop to kill time, I wasn’t looking for anything. But something was looking for me.
An object: a carved flame in solid wood, dark, lightly gilded, standing tall, over a foot high. Smooth and sinuous to the touch.
I saw it immediately as a focus for prayer and meditation. As I lifted it, the heft and weight felt just right in my hands. But I’m trying to learn to live more frugally, so as I tipped it to look for the price, I was apprehensive.
It was on sale for just £5 (US$10)! Yup, you read that right! I felt some trepidation as I it took it to the sales desk: had it been marked wrongly? But no, I handed over my crumpled fiver to the uninterested sales girl and made off with my flame.
Living with it over the past few days has even moved me to one of my occasional attempts at home-grown poetry:
Pentecostal flame
The tongue
is a muscular and
sensitive organ.It is no coincidence
that flames are said
to lick.Fire has sinews that
would consume
any human tongue.But Pentecostal strength
offers us tongues of fire
to wearlike gilded thorns.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, that’s gorgeous. And a bargain, to boot.
I love the the very center looks like a musical note.
What a piece! Also, if you look closely, the very middle round section looks like a tall, elongated musical note. It makes me think of music and the fire and passion with which great music is played.
So beautiful – and the poem too – Tess. My daughter and I have each had our own shops and we each know from experience how objects find their rightful owners. In one case, a piece travelled thousands of kilometres to find its rightful owner! Don’t you think that something like this works like a key to open up a particular corner of our spirit?
Thank you all – and to Towanda and Maya for both spotting the musical note, which I hadn’t done. That will now add to my treasuring of my flame, and will remind me of you both. And Miss Eagle, yes I like the key analogy. I think places can be like that as well.
I, too, noticed the music note in the center.
It reminds me of the Refiners fire – purifying and cleansing us as we pass through until we let go of the slag in our lives. For me, when I find myself feeling like I’m deep within the fire, I try to focus myself on praise and worship music – singing to my Master.
I do like the analogy you made to prayer with this too. It’s great when we have tangable things to remind us. I’m afraid I’d be too self-concious to create a poem, let alone share it! You are creative! What a gift.
What a beautiful piece! And it will be a wonderful focal point . . . though I’m afraid I would lose myself in those sinuous, shaded lines.