Northern New England Review Volume 42 | 2022
Northern New England Review is published as a creative voice for the Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine region. NNER publishes writers and artists who live in, are from, or have connections to Vermont, New Hampshire, or Maine. If you live here, were once from here, lost or found your heart here, or are currently searching for it among the green hills, sparkling ponds, and rocky coasts, NNER has the poems, short fiction, and creative nonfiction you want to read. Northern New England Review is edited and designed by students and faculty at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire. Questions can be sent to Margot Douaihy, editor, at douaihym@franklinpierce.edu.
Northern New England Review is published as a creative voice for the Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine region. NNER publishes writers and artists who live in, are from, or have connections to Vermont, New Hampshire, or Maine. If you live here, were once from here, lost or found your heart here, or are currently searching for it among the green hills, sparkling ponds, and rocky coasts, NNER has the poems, short fiction, and creative nonfiction you want to read.
Northern New England Review is edited and designed by students and faculty at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire. Questions can be sent to Margot Douaihy, editor, at douaihym@franklinpierce.edu.
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Miriam Levine
CANDLE TO THE FLAME
for Jim
Clear skies when in the east the evening star is clean as ice,
I would think that’s where the sun will rise: east and east again,
sunlight floods our room, the tables blaze, the unnecessary
candle leaves the smell of smoke, a trace on the candle stick.
“Why are we here?” my friend once asked. “Our species . . .”
“To read each other’s poems,” I laughed. In his there are
swallows, swifts, doves, red-winged blackbirds, crows
ancient seers would see as auguries and I dare to see as hope,
but aren’t we also here to sacrifice the candle to the flame
and see light fade?
NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND REVIEW | 49
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