Strike a match
A small fire blooms
Feebly lighting
These sacred rooms

Approach the shrine
Delicately handle
Touch the fire
Light the candle

On the altar
Its flame at first
Begins to falter
Then catches as it goes........

Burning and churning
Bouncing and flouncing
Dancing and prancing
Quaking and shaking
Glowing and flowing
Zooming and fluming
Swaying and playing
Shimmering and glimmering
Flickering and wickering
Wiggling and jiggling
Glittering and flittering
Flowering and towering
Brightening and lightening

Then........
Fluttering and sputtering and guttering
As a gust from the window
Makes the flame go
Sparkening then darkening
Smoking and choking

The candle's gone out
Leaving only a spark
Concentration in doubt
Rooms swallowed in dark

Meditation mind
Gone with the wind