Cerebration

A TREE AFLAME ON A POWER LINE: WILLIAM DORESKI

William Doreski is a Professor of English at Keene State College (New Hampshire). He teaches creative writing, literary theory, and modern poetry. Born in Connecticut, he lived in Boston, Cambridge, and Arlington, MA for many years, attended various colleges, and received a Ph.D. from Boston University. After teaching at Goddard, Harvard, and Emerson colleges, he came to Keene State in 1982. He has published several collections of poetry, three critical studies and a textbook entitled How to Read and Interpret Poetry (Prentice-Hall). Dr. Doreski's critical essays, poetry, and reviews have appeared in many academic and literary journals.

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A tree aflame on a power line
brightens the hurricane sky.
We dodge under it as quickly
as we dare. Acetylene-bright,
the glare ornaments the drab

hurricane sky with a festive
defiance of the heavy rain.
You've never seen this violet hue
before, but I remember it
flashing in the midnight hills

when as a child I lay awake
convinced that the stars themselves
were landing to dispense their favors
among the chosen few, like me.
I don't know whether huge gouts

of foxfire or fragments of dream
illuminated those distant slopes.
But precisely this shade of violet
flared and in a few moments died,
leaving an afterimage dark

as the imagined light had been bright.
This bonfire of tree and power pole
is actual enough to deprive us
of electricity and phone line
for several hours to come. Yet

watching it burn exhilarates
with primal notions arsonists
and firefighters share. You insist
on driving home and leaving
the fire for firefighters to enjoy;

but I'm so dark with childhood
that the impossible violet flame
burns sixty years of adulthood
away, leaving nothing but nature
elemental enough to blame.

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