"As in a Flame, one sees a Spark"

Seated patiently, by myself, in this small, dark room

Watching the flames of my fire slowly die

No people, no pets, just me to watch the flame

Die tranquilly, politely, wordlessly away

Proust sought lost time in his flame, I'm looking for a note

Actually two notes, one still and one that goes and comes

2

Is this too much to ask? We know transition comes

But in my rambling, labyrinthine plans, I've left no room

And if I had, what and for whom would it connote?

Do I control anything or does some other agent cast the die?

Is strategy moot because it's all beyond my sway?

And if so, why is there ordained a subtle, dying, flickering flame?

3

When she was here she set my heart high aflame

But sooner or later the bottomless loneliness comes

To those who survive the other: and lightless, I soon lost my way

We don't thrive in a soundless room

Still the small flame lights the hearth with a blood-red dye

The music stopped some years ago; I long to hear a note

4

Ringing sweetly or clanging dissonantly, a note against a note

It takes two, you see, to make a proper flame

Else, alone, without music, what is left but to die?

And soon enough, we know, that comes

But not yet, for I watch my small flame in this room

Hopeful to hear music, before I must away

5

The embers make no sound; it just is not their way

Does their strange, glowing silence good or ill denote?

Do they know I am here, or are they heedless of this room?

A lot of cogitation on a glow that was a flame

Time enough to softly ponder all before the ending comes

But all things wane, and fade, and stir the wondering, wandering mind before they die

6

Nothing is half ininite; what is born must surely die

What has come must surely take its turn to go away

And likewise that which goes away eventually comes

Thus wait I expectantly to hear my missing note 'gainst note

Fulsome counterpoint of sound to come at endpoint's feeble flame

I'm proving that as I sit here, patiently, alone in this small, dark room

Envoi

And just as mortal flame does die, there is a quiet, soaring note

The music--"Yes I'm coming, Sir" as you my inner ear inflame

The raucous heavenly harmony thunders ;oud--yes God is in my little room