There is nothing like a good fire in winter to bring folks together. That and a great glass of Pinot Noir .
The morning dawn is awake,
Peering with a blurry eye,
Shielded by a grey coverlet,
It’s orb dimly lights the sky,
Arising to meet the day beginning,
Creatures stir from stiff slumber,
Knowing they will be whittled down,
Slowly abraded by winter’s knife,
Frosty steel in a chilled bone haft,
The human beings move in a stoop,
Cold clutches their fragile forms,
Its icy burden a formidable weight,
Balanced on the precipice of life,
They huddle before blazing hearths,
Closer, absorbing each others warmth,
It is not enough to survive,
Together for eons they bonded,
In a dank litter strewn cave,
A fragrant hut of fir boughs and bark,
Skin wrapped teepee on the plains,
Not for love or family or tribe,
It is that spark that all seek out,
No matter what species of life,
In time of hardship and misery,
Before the magical mystery of fire,
The comfort of sharing another’s touch.
©2012, Donald Harbour
Donald Harbour Poetry 
Yay, Donald – some beautiful thinking here. Thank God we’ve had none of that dreadful chill yet this winter, but still the fire’s roaring mightily in our stove.
LikeLike
It is all about family and friendship, Donald. Very nice write.
Pamela
LikeLike
we have a fireplace and we heat our house with a wood stove…..sooo nice…like your poem Donald…thanks again for sharing your words
LikeLike
Thank you for warming us up Donald. I’ve been thinking about fire myself. Still remember the hotel fireplace we all ran to from the freezing outside in December, in north Vietnam.
LikeLike
I love the sense of the deep, deep history of humankind that you allude to here.
LikeLike
I’m with John – it’s the deep history of man that I found myself responding to also; and we heat with a wood-fed fireplace also, much of the winter and there’s nothing to beat it.
LikeLike
seems like any humans that get around a fire get closer
congregating tribes
LikeLike