Burning Man on the Brain

"Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn." -Thomas Gray

"Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn." -John Wesley

Photo credit to Kiana

"When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself." -Shanryu Suzuki

I can't wait for next year on the playa.

Purposes

I was born to seek love and to give it
I was born to drink in the kiss of the sun and the caress of the wind
To run, and to keep running,
even as I fight myself to do it, for those moments when everything becomes effortless and my body lifts with my spirits to embrace the world
I was born to listen
And to learn
I was born to smile, and laugh, and weep tears of joy
I was born to desire
I was born to fall and hurt, and to rise again in spite of it
I was born to believe in my world
To yearn for far-off places
And find peace in the familiar
I was born to love the stillness of the forest
The rush of the wind
The calling of birds
I born to revel in the violence of lashing rain and cracking thunder
I was born to live with nothing between myself and the world
I was born to create
I was born to wander and to move
To play and to be still
I was born to dance
To seek the light
I was born to burn and be quenched
To know and to not know
I was born to touch
And to sing
I was born to give
And to take
I was born into pleasure and into pain
I was born to be proud
To go with the flow and never give up
To shape and be shaped
I was born to be happy
I was born to feel free
I was born for no other reason, than to be me.