Set Alight (Poetry)

Based on a painting by surrealist Polish artist Jacek Yerka

From deep underground a vast furnace is roaring
and sending up flames in sudden bright bursts
inbetween tree roots a fizzing of fireworks
their orange-gold energy drawn from the earth

and up through the trunks all grown hollow as churches
windowed and glowing down aisles dense with wood
like Halloween magic — the carving of lanterns
to honour the spirits — both evil and good.

Incongruous faces of clocks tell the hour.
The trapdoor is open but no one comes through
and pages fly free as white doves winging under
the dark arching branches criss-crossing night’s blue.

Subterranean fires burning throughout the forest
as though set alight by some devilish whim
illuminate all in a radiant hell-world
where threat of combustion flares potent within.

The wood stands unharmed — a surreal combination
of elements seen in a visionary’s head
transferred to the canvas — expressed in a painting
fire’s strange incarnation a contrast to dread.