Leaving the Circle

Leaving the Circle

for my students

I wrote a poem once in which a student

rose and wandered out toward deeper snow to search

for something dry to build her fire.

In this poem, I leave you warm around

the words we rubbed to flame, but don't stay

until the fire dies; realize

the coals touch our lips;* what we ingest

glows with every honest breath till one

by one we rise like smoke— true as prayer.

*Isaiah 6:6-7 "Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched

my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."