Young Writers Society

This is another story yet again, it says that peoples words can burn you and hurt you, you try to put the fire out but its impossible because its burned in your mind, the fire can't be put out no matter how hard you try, the fire is infinite, the more cruel words people say, the fire will get bigger and bigger until you can't handle it no more then you already have, the burns are permanent and remind you how much of a warrior you truly are.

I wrote a poem about a woman being burned alive recently, so I was pretty interested when I saw this title in the Green Room and was not disappointed.

I love that you give us just enough in this poem that it could be interpreted in many different ways, but you still give us some imagery and intrigue and mystery that as a reader I want to imagine and learn more - good use of brevity to create interest - I'd certainly be interested in reading a "part two."

My interpretation of the poem is that two people were in love at one time and from the very physical / skin oriented imagery I assume the two have a close physical relationship as well - however the speaker has realized that the relationship is ultimately destructive like fire - the subject is using the speaker to put out fires and not caring that it is "burning" them. This might be interpreted that the subject is lashing out in anger / hatred / or some other toxic trait, but ultimately the speaker has come to the realization that even though the subject was once someone they were close to that now this relationship is destructive. Interestingly there's some ambiguity on who is burning between the two, and if the speaker is going to leave the subject is left unsettled at the end.

I like the minimalist formatting and the variety of line lengths - I thought it made the poem seem more authentic in a way or free-flowing and unpredictable rather than having rigid line lengths. I thought it was interesting to use raw in the final two lines because "raw" could mean freshly painful but it could also mean "uncooked" which doesn't quite fit what's going on in the poem. I don't know if you were going for an ironic pun there, but because of "raw's" uncooked meaning I'd almost opt for a different conclusion if it was myself to avoid confusion.

Overall, a very vivid poem, and I look forward to reading more of your work!

alliyah

The man burns on the inside. So he burns the woman to extinguish his own flame. He wishes not to face his own feelings and instead takes his anger out on the woman. That’s what I got from this poem. The fire would represent the repressed hatred and anger, orange, bright, flaming, and furious. It only takes a cold dose of water…only takes that to put it out.

I wish you a lovely day/night!

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