Alchemical

I started with a line - "I am the wind" - and the poem took off from there, thinking about the four elements of alchemy, and their attributes. This poem is not, however, about the kind of astrological "which sign are you", and is not concerned with what elements are supposed to represent. It is a million miles from "like fire itself, fire signs tend to be passionate, dynamic, and temperamental", which is something I wanted to avoid and get away from.

It is instead a mediation on the nature of these four aspects of being, and how we encounter them. It is not even how the ancients encountered them in deities, as I wanted to go beyond that to something far more basic to the elemental forces themselves.

Alchemical

I am the wind, the spirit of air
I am motion, I am not seen
I am breath within each prayer
I am the silence in between

I am the earth, the solid land
I am rock, I am the ground
I am solid, not sifting sand
I am where fertile soil is found

I am the water, the raging sea
I am streams, I am cloud burst
I am the rain, that falls so free
I am the life that quenches thirst

I am the fire, the burning flame
I am the heat, I am the sunlight
I am a gift that man could tame
I am glow of the candle bright