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
When I meditated at my altar, watching the flame, the poet in me would fasten on two or more words that rhymed to describe its movement. This distracted me from meditating, so I made a poem out of it. That way I could put it away and get back to focusing on meditating.