Burning

Speaking from experience--- perspective of the years,
Having lived and loved and hated; laughed and wept and feared;
Having known both joy and sorrow, suffered triumph and despair,
Sometimes daring and courageous, sometimes reticent and scared;

Having shared some notoriety, some victory, some shame,
Been both lauded and applauded, both credited and blamed;
Having known the joy of true love, that has stood the test of years,
Bearing babies whose mortality touched my deepest fears . . . .Yes, speaking from experience, having lived and loved and burned,
Now that half my life is over, I can tell what I have learned:
It is better to burn brightly giving warmth and giving light,
Then to be a tiny candle that can barely pierce the night.
Yes, it's better to burn hotly, even though I be consumed,
Then to slowly, coldly flicker through unending useless gloom.
I would rather blaze in glory, (though not out of control),
Than to live that extra moment for which some would sell their souls.
I have burned and raged and smoldered, cooled till just an ember,
Almost gone; rekindled when the glory was remembered.
Now I want to burn more brightly the remainder of my days,
And to go out as I've lived my life: a shining burning blaze.

By Shoshana Kurzweil