Joan Of Arc

When I see those flames

around you

a fierce exultation rises up

not a cheer

but something more radical

upon which

nothing less than everything depends

An inarticulate celebration

of all that is indestructible

in the human spirit

It is when I think

of the last night you spent

in prison

having denied that spirit

to save youthful

urgent flesh

that my heart rushes

to your side

let me take some weight

that unbearable burden

which crushes the human soul

just before it discovers

that its destiny

lies in

fire