Of Friendly Fireside

Color and temperature of a flame are dependent on the type of fuel involved...wikipedia

yes, its Wikem-Day. If you are a regular reader you will know what this means, but if you are new to this word, check its definition here!

I seek them out

Drawn it seems,

By fearless trust

And brave day-dreams

Undeterred

By history

Souls soft-stirred

With mystery

Eyes, like candles

Brightly-strung

Time is long

For they are young

So, I seek them out

Where hungry desire

Bids me warm frozen dreams

At childhood's fire

© Janet Martin

On Sunday I look forward to a new term as a grade six Sunday-school teacher. I am always excited, not so much for what I will teach them, but for what they will teach me!

Also, I would love to share one of my favorite fireside poems

There in the flame of the open grate,
All that is good in the past I see:
Red-lipped youth on the swinging gate,
Bright-eyed youth with its minstrelsy;
Girls and boys that I used to know,
Back in the days of Long Ago,
Troop before in the smoke and flame,
Chatter and sing, as the wild birds do.
Everyone I can call by name,
For the fire builds all of my youth anew.
Outside, people go stamping by,
Squeak of wheel on the evening air,
Stars and planets race through the sky,
Here are darkness and silence rare;
Only the flames in the open grate
Crackle and flare as they burn up hate,
Malice and envy and greed for gold,
Dancing, laughing my cares away;
I've forgotten that I am old,
Once again I'm a boy at play.
There in the flame of the open grate
Bright the pictures come and go;
Lovers swing on the garden gate,
Lovers kiss 'neath the mistletoe.
I've forgotten that I am old,
I've forgotten my story's told;
Whistling boy down the lane I stroll,
All untouched by the blows of fate,
Time turns back and I'm young of soul,
Dreaming there by the open grate.

Edgar Albert Guest