Amber show emerges from hearth,
summoned images cast faint light
Resounding chime from mantled clock,
presents the hour on snowy night
An evening dance to billowed flames,
shadows waver with flickers ebb
Musical score in embers grate,
arises with smokes spiraled web

Careen and bow of nightly waltz,
leisurely drift to echoed chime
Pendulum swings with steady beat,
key winds the measured tempo's time
Chambered chorus tranquilly roars,
splintered crackle follows on cue
Ashes from tinder slowly sift,
kindled fire swells in draft of flue

Tended surge yields comforting warmth,
stoking cinders stifles rooms' chill
Season wails beyond havens' cloak,
outside rages with winters' spill
Gusting shower spreads icy sheen,
snow heaps along blustery trail
Frigid wind flails its chosen path,
refuge shelters against the gale

Felled timber placed in shallow hold,
bursts into an ignited glow
Summer shades aligning the wall,
cool when shed embers shimmer low
Awakened with held bellows breeze,
shades erupt in wisped pastel hues
Fitted stones in tinged sooty black,
stages warm conjured blazing views

© C.E. Vance