Scars of Belief

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Cover Poem

Scars of Belief

By Joshua Chalifour
 

And the human heart
hides desolating grief
and almost-sweet pain
that comes if the wild fires
have some blossoms.

Its brief fire, fed with
only scorching sorrow
once relentlessly sped.

And there it revives,
cool again, forest lands
like a purifying life
of some beautiful flower
and some gentle hands.

And spirit lifts to North
where the human head knows
sweet fellow-feeling of
the purple fire-flowers.

Sonic Topology

Sonic topology of Scars of Belief by Joshua Chalifour

Sonic topology of Fire-Flowers by E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake)

Text Identification

Text circled to show sonic topology of Scars of Belief by Joshua Chalifour

Text circled to show sonic topology of Fire-Flowers by E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake)

Source

Fire-Flowers

By E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) ¹
 

¹ E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake), “Fire-Flowers,” in Canadian Born (Toronto: George N. Morang & Co., Limited, 1903).

And only where the forest fires have sped,
   Scorching relentlessly the cool north lands,
A sweet wild flower lifts its purple head
And, like some gentle spirit sorrow-fed,
   It hides the scars with almost human hands.

And only to the heart that knows of grief,
   Of desolating fire, of human pain,
There comes some purifying sweet belief,
Some fellow-feeling beautiful, if brief,
   And life revives, and blossoms once again.